Bubba Ventrone spent the past five seasons in Indianapolis and interviewed for the franchise’s head coaching job last month, but he will be moving soon. The Browns are hiring him as special teams coordinator, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports tweets.
For Ventrone, this will be a return trip. His longest stint as a player came in Cleveland, where he played from 2009-12. The former special-teamer will now head up the Browns’ ST operation. Ventrone will also be an assistant head coach in Cleveland, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who notes that bump helped convince the well-regarded staffer to sign on with the Browns (Twitter link).
The Browns interviewed Ventrone, 40, this week for the position. They also met with Giants assistant special teams coach Anthony Blevins and former return ace Leon Washington, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). Washington has spent the past two seasons as the Jets’ assistant special teams coach.
Amid one of the most disappointing seasons in Colts history, they still charted as the eighth-best special teams unit on veteran NFL reporter Rick Gosselin’s annual list. (The Browns ranked 18th here in 2022.) The Colts were a top-five unit on Gosselin’s 2020 and 2021 lists. George Odum and Ashton Dulin earned All-Pro acclaim during that span, as did long snapper Luke Rhodes.
The Colts firing Frank Reich midway through this past season opened the door for most of his assistants to leave. Ventrone will return to the organization that signed him in 2009 and gave him a three-year extension in 2010. Ventrone had attended Shane Steichen‘s introductory press conference, and Mike Chappell of CBS4 notes the Colts attempted to convince him to stay; he was still under contract with the team. But they eventually permitted the Browns interview. Several players wanted Ventrone to be the interim HC, Zak Keefer of The Athletic tweets, but Jim Irsay of course gave that position to Jeff Saturday.
Cleveland dismissed Mike Priefer as its ST coordinator earlier this week. A veteran ST coordinator, Priefer had spent the past four seasons in this position. The Browns kept the Cleveland native on from Freddie Kitchens‘ staff, though Priefer had worked extensively with Kevin Stefanski in Minnesota during the 2010s. Still, Stefanski will now go with Ventrone; the two have not previously worked together. A 10-year NFL veteran, Ventrone began his coaching foray as the Patriots’ assistant special teams coach from 2015-17.
Since Priefer had an issue in 2014 with “remarks” he had made and was suspended for 3 weeks as well as undergoing sensitivity training; was his termination in Cleveland due to the on-field performance of their Special Teams unit OR the actions/conduct of Priefer?
I don’t recall that particular incident but I think it’s generally understood that ST coaches become the designated “fall guys” when nobody else is available.