Ventrone excited to be back in Cleveland

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - The Browns officially introduced assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone on Wednesday via Zoom.

The former Browns special team player said he is excited to be back in Cleveland.

“It is a blue-collar town,” Ventrone explained. “It is a blue-collar town that loves football and that is passionate about football. I was here from ‘09-’12, and we didn’t have a lot of successful seasons. We were very good on special teams back then, may I note.”

The new coach also talked passionately about working with kicker Cade York.

“It is not too often you get to actually coach a guy you rank coming out of college at the highest at that position,” Ventrone said. “Last year, grading all of the specialists, the kickers and the punters, I had Cade at the highest. I am fortunate to be able to coach him this year. I think that he obviously can improve. We are just going to coach him up, and we are going to be as good as we can in the kicking phase.”

York struggled from 30 to 40 range, missing three of his kicks from those lengths all season.

As for the rest of the special teams, Ventrone is excited for the possibilities and improvement that could be had.

“As far as the core group, it is a talented group overall. I see a lot of upside here both with the ball handlers we have currently on our roster and I would say the guys who are contributing in the big four phases – coverage units and blocking phases. I am excited to work with this group.”

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