The Browns announced changes to their coaching staff for the 2022 season Friday by assigning new roles to five coaches on head coach Kevin Stefanski's previous staffs and welcoming two new coaches to the organization.
Stephen Bravo-Brown, who was a defensive quality control coach last season, has been assigned to assistant special teams coach.
On the offensive side of the ball, former tight ends coach Drew Petzing will be assigned as quarterbacks coach, former offensive assistant T.C. McCartney will take over as tight ends coach and former Bill Willis fellow Ashton Grant will be moved to offensive quality control. Callie Brownson will remain Chief of Staff but will also hold the role of assistant wide receivers coach.
On defense, Jordan Thomas has been brought to the organization as assistant defensive line coach after spending four seasons at San Diego State. Jeff Anderson, who was cornerbacks coach at Cal Poly last season and was a Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellow for the Browns in the summer of 2021, will be a defensive quality control coach. Chris Kiffin also will be returning to the organization for a third season as defensive line coach.
"I think year in and year out, we've had some changes with the staff, and we were fortunate last year to bring back the staff in total," Stefanski said. "This year, we have a few more changes, and I think that can be good. We have some new coaches, and we are also moving some coaches to different positions that allows them to grow and allows us to hear different points of view."
Bravo-Brown will now work with special teams coordinator Mike Priefer as the assistant special teams coach. Bravo-Brown was a defensive quality control coach for the Browns the last two seasons and previously coached wide receivers at Missouri State. He's been coaching since 2015, when he was hired as a wide receivers coach at Waldorf University, and spent three seasons at Wake Forest in a variety of coaching roles, including graduate assistant and assistant wide receivers coach. He also played wide receiver at South Florida and Eastern Illinois.
"Bravo is a guy that's done great work for us the last couple years," Stefanski said. "He brings tremendous enthusiasm and passion to everything he does, and I know he's excited about this opportunity."
Petzing will spend his third year with the Browns after he originally joined Stefanski's staff in 2020 as the tight ends coach. Petzing was the assistant quarterbacks coach with the Vikings in 2018 when Stefanski was the Vikings' QB coach and spent six seasons in Minnesota before he came to Cleveland.
"We feel like he has a unique perspective that he can contribute with those quarterbacks and help in their development," Stefanski said. "He's an important piece of our offensive staff, and we're excited to get him and (offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt) working together."
McCartney has been an offensive assistant with the Browns since 2020 and will replace Petzing as the tight ends coach. He'll be entering his seventh season as an NFL coach and had previous stints with the 49ers and Broncos, holding various offensive roles in addition to graduate assistant roles at LSU and Colorado.
"T.C. is a really good, young coach that has a ton of experience in NFL systems," Stefanski said. "We think he's ready to take on the challenge of coaching the tight ends. I think it's a great place for young coaches to grow. It's something I did when I first moved to a position coach, and I think T.C. will do great in applying all the knowledge he already has."
Grant has spent the last two seasons with the Browns as part of the Bill Willis Coaching Fellowship, which is devoted to a rising minority coach with a focus on the offensive side of the ball. He initially joined the team in 2020 in the Bill Walsh Fellowship, a separate opportunity each NFL team offers to minority coaches during offseason programs, and worked with Kiffin before transitioning to the Bill Willis Coaching Fellowship. He worked in the running backs room in his first year of the Bill Willis Fellowship and then worked closely with the wide receivers in 2021.
"We went through a really stringent process to find a good young coach when we hired Ashton, so we felt really strongly about bringing him on," Stefanski said. "He's done an outstanding job the last two years. He's made great, great strides as a coach and taking advantage of all the resources we have here, so he's earned the role as the offensive QC, and we're really looking forward to his continued development."
Stefanski said the Browns will work toward bringing in a new Bill Willis Fellow in 2022 and plan on developing the coach in the quarterbacks room.
"When we first put the fellowship together, we specifically said the offense because we want to do our part in developing young minority coaches on the offensive side of the ball, which would create good offensive candidates for quarterback coaches, offensive coordinators and head coaches," Stefanski said. "This next hire we make will be in the quarterback room for that very reason."
Brownson has handled a variety of tasks across two seasons as Stefanski's Chief of Staff and will now also assist wide receivers coach/pass game coordinator Chad O'Shea in the wide receivers room. Brownson, who will also be the head coach of the U.S. National Team at the 2022 Women's Tackle World Championship, previously interned with the Bills and Jets and will enter her third season with the Browns.
"Callie's done a great job in her role, and now going into Year 3, she definitely has the capacity to add more responsibilities to the offensive side of the ball," Stefanski said. "She's been a utility player for us in the past and filled in for coaches on gameday, so this is just another step in her career. Coach O'Shea does an awesome job of mentoring coaches in that room, so I know Chad is excited to get to work closer with Callie."
Thomas will begin his first coaching gig in the NFL after spending the last six seasons coaching at the college and high school level. The last four of those years were with San Diego State, spending two seasons as a graduate assistant and two seasons as the defensive line coach. He helped coach SDSU to a school-record 12 wins in 2021 and was helped the Scarlet and Black rank among the NCAA leaders in total defense (third in 2020) and rushing defense (third in 2021 and seventh in 2020).
"Jordan is a young coach that we identified early in our process, and he checked all the boxes," Stefanski said. "We were really, really impressed with him throughout the interview process. He's got great experience even though he's a young man. He fits our culture and fits what we're looking to do. He and Coach Kiffin are excited to get to work."
Anderson worked with the linebackers and the special teams unit during his time with the Browns as a Bill Walsh Fellow in the summer and previously coached eight seasons at the collegiate level. Before he was the cornerbacks coach at Cal Poly (2020-21), he was the graduate assistant at San Jose State (2018-19) and Northern Colorado (2017) and coached various offensive positions at Contra Costa College (2014-16), which won two conference championships in his tenure.
"Jeff is someone we've kept tabs on over the last couple years," Stefanski said. "He did a Bill Walsh internship with us last summer, and he's a really energetic young coach who we know is going to have a great impact in our building — whether it be with the defensive staff or with our players. We know his impact will be felt."
