CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Browns have competition for Duce Staley, the former Panthers running backs coach they interviewed this week.
Staley, 48, would replace Stump Mitchell, who was fired on Wednesday, the same day the Browns parted ways with offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney.
Staley spent that day interviewing with the Browns at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea, and they plan to make him an offer, a league source told cleveland.com.
But the Jets plan to do the same, the source said.
In Cleveland, Staley would take over a running game that finished 12th in the NFL this season despite losing four-time Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury in Week 2.
In Chubb’s absence, the Browns ran the ball by committee, with Jerome Ford finishing first with 813 yards (4.0 average) and four touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt finishing second with 411 yards (3.0 average) and a team-high nine rushing TDs.
Pierre Strong Jr. finished third on the team with 291 yards (4.6 average) and a TD.
But the running game struggled in the 45-14 loss to the Texans in the wild card round, totaling 56 yards on 20 carries for a 2.8-yard average against the league’s No. 6 run defense.
A third-round pick of the Eagles out of South Carolina in 1997, Staley has a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers as a player in 2005 and with the Eagles as running backs coach in 2017.
Staley spent five of his 10 seasons in Philadelphia (2011-20) with Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, including on that Super Bowl-winning team, when they defeated the Patriots 41-33 after the 2017 season.
