Browns hire Ray Horton, Kirby Wilson, Pep Hamilton, Al Saunders

Ray Horton returns to serve as the team’s defensive coordinator, a role he held under former head coach Rob Chudzinski in 2013.

The Browns hired Ray Horton as defensive coordinator and added Al Saunders and Kirby Wilson to their offensive staff, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported.

In 1985 Seamon, a native of southern IN, got his first offensive coordinator job after coaching positions on both sides of the ball at Purdue and Army. The Browns finished ninth in yards allowed that season and 23rd in points per game. Horton was the Browns’ defensive coordinator before he accepted a job with the Titans in 2014.

Saunders, who was Jackson’s offensive coordinator in Oakland in 2011, comes to the Browns with a history as part of some of the league’s most memorable and explosive offenses, helping create “The Greatest Show on Turf” as an assistant head coach/wide receivers coach in St. Louis and “Air Coryell” with the Chargers in the mid ’80s as a wide receivers coach. “I wanted somebody that knew the lay of the land and understood the division, understands the culture here and understands the change that we need to make and someone who can lead our young players and develop players to get better”.

“His defenses have gone after the quarterback”, Jackson said.

According to Jackson, the thing he found most encouraging when building the offensive and special-teams staffs was the coaches’ desire to be in Cleveland and help turn around the fortunes of a franchise that has not had a winning season since 2007 or made it to the postseason since 2002.

“As an offensive staff, I think first and foremost, we have to work together. Everywhere he’s been that place has been better for it. There aren’t many guys you can say that about and he’s one of them”.

“Getting a coach like Pep Hamilton is going to be big for us”, Jackson said in the team’s press release. Before joining the Cardinals, he coached the Steelers’ defensive backs for seven seasons.

Hutson has worked in the National Football League and spent last season as associate head coach and line coach at Eastern Illinois. They have been effective in stopping the run. That is what we need to do. “We have known each other. That is what we expect from our defense”.