Dawgs By Nature
Now that the Cleveland Browns are almost finished with the 2025 NFL season, it is still not a clear picture of whether ownership will retain Kevin Stefanski as the head coach of the franchise going forward. Will this be his last few games? Will he be released from his duties? Could a trade happen?
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Stefanski was installed as the head coach beginning with the 2020 season. He took that team to its first playoff game since 2002 after going 11-5-0. The Browns then defeated their rival Pittsburgh Steelers, 48-37, and then lost a close one to the Kansas City Chiefs, 22-17. He was then awarded NFL Coach of the Year.
After going 8-9-0 and 7-10-0, Cleveland again made the playoffs in 2023, slotted in the highest Wild Card spot with an 11-6-0 record before losing to the Houston Texans in the postseason, 45-14. Stefanski again was voted the NFL Coach of the Year.
Those two awards carry a lot of weight.
It is almost equivalent to when a head coach captures a Super Bowl title or two, then has several dreadful consecutive seasons and doesn’t make the playoffs at all. The fact that the coach won those titles influences the ownership to give him more slack than normal and wait for his ballclubs to become victorious once again.
For the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Stefanski is a combined 6-25-0. The team has back-to-back double-digit loss seasons. Other than DE Myles Garrett’s quest to break the single-season sack record, the overall structure of the ballclub hasn’t improved much from the roster that lost 14 games last year.
So, doesn’t that warrant some changes? A player here and there? Or major changes?
Stefanski is a highly-regarded coach in the NFL. He is well-liked and respected, even though his rosters haven’t won anything. No division crowns, a single playoff game win, no AFC Championship Game participation, and certainly no rings.
And folks around the league don’t even blame him for the Deshaun Watson debacle. They point to Browns’ owner Jimmy Haslam and former chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta as the culprits for pulling those strings, and to a lesser extent, with GM Andrew Berry.
Many believe that Jimmy and Dee Haslam and Berry were the ones who pushed QB Baker Mayfield out the door. Again, Stefanski wasn’t viewed as one of the villains in that travesty either. Two quarterback fiascos, and Stefanski appeared with clean hands.
The decision to pursue Watson and show Mayfield the door was a top-down move by the front office and ownership, signaling a desire for a new direction at quarterback after Mayfield regressed quite a bit. But keep in mind, he suffered shoulder damage that was never repaired until the season was over. If he had stopped his season, had surgery, and then came back healthy in the following training camp, the trade for Watson would have never surfaced. Watson has since only played in 19 games for Cleveland.
All those...
