Dawgs By Nature
It’s a topic of discussion amongst the people in Cleveland, dating back to last season. If the opportunity presented itself, would the Cleveland Browns fire both general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski?
Probably not.
If anything, it’s the latter who is most in trouble. It’s possible, maybe even likely, that Berry will be the last one standing, and Stefanski will be the one who takes the fall on the sword. It might seem unfair to some, but it’s the NFL. Firing both the GM and HC would essentially have the team start over in terms of another regime change (after struggling for years to find the right combo), but the GM staying with the coach being fired is a possibility that has its benefits.
Contrary to popular belief, Stefanski has been the best coach the team has had since they returned in 1999.. It’s not saying a lot, but considering how most of the coaches for the Browns were bad to terrible, getting a coach who won Coach of the Year twice and led the team to the playoffs in two out of the four years is something most would take.
The team hasn’t given up on Stefanski yet, but the offense is still inept, and that falls on the head coach for not fixing it.
That brings us to Berry. His future is more of a controversial topic. Since Berry has been here, the GM has done good things for Cleveland’s roster. He’s also done some bad. Is he one of the best general managers in the NFL? Not necessarily. However, Berry is someone who did things differently from previous Browns general managers.
He took aggressive swings (i.e, the Deshaun Watson trade) to improve the quality of the team. Outside of the Watson trade backfiring, his free agency moves have been hit or miss as well. If the team had a weakness, Berry would do his best to address it. Sometimes it works, other times, not so much.
When it comes to his drafting, most fans will nitpick and say his draft classes were underwhelming, but it’s not the case. The classes weren’t spectacular (rarely are draft classes perfect), but they rounded to league average.
Berry also drafted a strong rookie class for this year despite two question marks at quarterback. Cleveland’s roster construction has been good (aside from this year).
It’s a possibility that the Browns will retain Berry and let Stefanski be the odd man out. In a rebuilding year, it doesn’t always make sense to fire both the HC/GM because you are essentially making your rebuild even harder to do. If the team wanted to clean house, last year was the prime year to do it.
Instead, they opted to keep both, but it’s likely one will stay while the other goes. If the rookie class didn’t show the promise they are showing now, it’s possible that both Stefanski and Berry would be gone. The two have been tied at the hip since...
