Why Browns losing wide receiver coach Chad O'Shea is for the better

The Cleveland Browns are in the market for a fresh face as a wide receiver coach.

On Monday, it was announced that former wide receiver coach for the Browns, Chad O’Shea, is headed to Kansas City to take over duties working with their core of receivers. O’Shea, who was brought in under former head coach Kevin Stefanski, spent six seasons with Cleveland after his time on Stefanski’s coaching staff in Minnesota.

The news was broken by NFL Insider Tom Pelissero on social media Monday afternoon.

The Chiefs are hiring Chad O’Shea as their wide receivers coach, per source.

O’Shea got into the NFL as a volunteer assistant with Kansas City in 2003. Over two decades later, he’s back as Andy Reid remodels his offensive staff. pic.twitter.com/BW7koHxbi3
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 19, 2026

O’Shea is a tenured coach in the NFL, making his way into the league back in 2003 with the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s a full circle moment for O’Shea, as he’ll look to make an impact with the Chiefs and their experienced receiver room.

The biggest development with this news however revolves around the Browns, who saw little to no improvement or development from their receivers under O’Shea’s coaching. The state of the Browns wide receiver room is a major area of needed improvement, with the expectation that they’ll look to add a player or two during the offseason to bolster one of the league's worst groups of receivers.

Under O’Shea’s guidance, the Browns only saw two receivers break the 1,000-yard mark over the last six seasons, that being veteran Amari Cooper in 2022 and 2023, as well as Jerry Jeudy in 2024. Both of these players are tenured receivers in the NFL, so their contributions to Cleveland’s offense weren’t solely because of coaching from O’Shea.

There were plenty of other receivers brought in since 2020 that had their share of notable moments, names like Jarvis Landry, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Rashard Higgins, as well as superstar Odell Beckham Jr., who regressed during his time in Cleveland compared to his other stops around the league.

None of those players broke the 1,000-yard receiving mark, which was a concerning statistic entering each season with hopes that someone would break onto the scene eventually under O’Shea. The Browns had hoped receivers David Bell, Anthony Schwartz, and Cedric Tillman would blossom into viable starters, but were unable to do so with Bell and Schwartz, and yet to do so with Tillman.

Entering the 2026 season, the Browns front office knows their wide receivers need an upgrade in some sense, or even some veteran experience as a safety blanket for Shedeur Sanders if he wins the quarterback job this summer.

With Jerry Jeudy set to enter next season as their number one receiver, and behind that not much else to be impressed by outside of their breakout tight end Harold Fannin Jr., the belief is Cleveland’s top draft picks in the 2026 NFL Draft could be used on one of the wide receiver prospects, whether that be Carnell Tate or Jordyn Tyson, potentially even later in the first round.

The Browns will look to add a new wide receiver coach over the next couple of months to help get their offensive production back on track and help out whoever may start at quarterback in 2026.