BEREA, Ohio -- Browns special teams coordinator Mike Priefer stressed consistency to his two young kickers as they transition from their rookie seasons to Year 2 in the NFL.
“They did so many good things, there’s a reason why they made our football team, there’s a reason why they won those jobs,” he said, “but if you’re not going to be more consistent, then we have to start making our list and looking elsewhere.”
The Browns went young at the position in 2019, with fifth-round pick Austin Seibert and undrafted free agent Jamie Gillan. Both displaced veterans who held their jobs the year prior.
Seibert converted on 25-of-29 field goal attempts, including all 15 under 40 yards, but missed five of his 35 extra-point tries.
Gillan, meanwhile, averaged 46.2 yards per punt and won AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance against the Jets in Week 2 and AFC Special Teams Player of the Month for September.
Priefer doesn’t exactly take it easy on his young kickers to begin with -- he said last season he didn’t believe Gillan was a Pro Bowl punter -- so it’s not surprising to see him drive his points home with them in his first press conference since being retained.
He said the goal is to be more consistent, stronger, better at kicking field goals and PATs and better at situational punting.
“Some of the things that maybe -- not allowed to happen -- but we didn’t get on them as much, maybe hitting a subpar punt, missing a PAT and that sort of thing which are obviously unacceptable,” he said, “we’ve got to make sure that stuff doesn’t happen again.”
And if they do?
“There’s always going to be young kickers and punters behind them that are on the street that are willing to do whatever it takes to get on an NFL team,” Priefer said, “and if they look at it that way and they push themselves in a positive direction, then I think we’re going to be OK, because they do have the talent to do all the things that we’re asking them to do.”
Here are some more highlights from Priefer’s press conference:
* Priefer is still under contract, so he would have needed permission to interview elsewhere. He said he heard about some opportunities for other jobs, but said, “I wanted to stay here, I wanted to be a part of this franchise.”
* On what he sees in new Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski: “He’s smart, he’s a good leader, he’s got charisma, he’s got that ‘it’ factor that most good coaches have.”
* On the return game: “Our return game’s got to improve immensely, I think we’ve got a long ways to go there. I think our two young returners, our two running backs did a good job last year for us for the most part. Whether we continue to get them to develop or we bring in new return men, that remains to be seen, but at the end of the day we have to improve as a return unit as well.”
* Priefer said he hasn’t watched the XFL with its new kickoff rule, but some people have told him about it. He didn’t sound interested in making big changes to how it’s done.
“It is a safer play than it ever has been and the last two years have proven that,” he said. “I don’t like that there’s so many touchbacks and maybe that’s one way to get rid of touchbacks, but we didn’t kick a lot of touchbacks on kickoff coverage. We gave people the opportunity to return it and we got after them and we were pretty aggressive in the return game as well. I think going forward we’ll have to pick and choose our spots in that regard, but I like our rules and I’m all for player safety but, at the end of the day, an exciting play that has been a part of our game forever, why ruin it, why tinker with it too much? That would be my question.”
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