Dawgs By Nature
The Cleveland Browns are on the hunt for a new head coach for the first time since 2020, and it’s no secret that Andrew Berry and Co. want to get it right this time. That’s not to say that Kevin Stefanski was necessarily the wrong choice; he just unfortunately had two atrocious seasons back to back for various reasons.
Looking forward, it seems obvious that the Browns want to focus on repairing and elevating the offense to where the defense has been under Jim Schwartz over the past few seasons.
Aside from an injection of talent to the roster itself, which Cleveland will most likely do over the next six months, they absolutely have to find a head coach who’s prepared to go all in on improving the offense in 2026.
That being said, the team has already interviewed some internal and external candidates for the job with varying levels of experience on both sides of the ball. So far, Browns OC Tommy Rees, Browns DC Jim Schwartz, Ravens OC Todd Monken, Seahawks DC Aden Durde, and Bengals OC Dan Pitcher have or will be interviewed for the job.
Someone not on the list is Former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, who Cleveland has definitely expressed interest in but hasn’t scheduled an interview yet.
McDaniel spent the 2014 season in Cleveland under then HC Mike Pettine, and we all know how that tenure went. This shouldn’t be a factor in his ability, though, as McDaniels’ offenses have been top-notch wherever he’s been, except in the second half of 2024 and 2025 when Miami imploded on itself for multiple reasons offensively.
He could realistically be the type of innovative offensive mind that the Browns most likely need at head coach. His two foundational ideologies on offense are speed and spacing, and those are two major areas that this team has been lacking in over the past two seasons.
One of the biggest gripes in Stefanski’s offense, at least in the passing game, is that receivers haven’t been consistently spaced properly, which leads to clumps of pass-catchers in the same area of the field. This should never happen outside of rub route variations or flood concepts, which wasn’t the case for Cleveland most of the time.
McDaniel is all about utilizing “cheat” motion to gain different advantages in both the run and pass game, and prioritizes making things easy for quarterbacks. His run game concepts mirror Kevin Stefanski’s (which is a good thing) and would make it simple for guys like Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson to adapt to early on.
His presence would likely be felt most in the passing game, and that’s exactly what needs to happen. Cleveland’s passing game has been so lackluster and boring that it’s essentially become predictable in certain situations.
McDaniel would come in and revamp the entire playbook in 2026, focusing on getting the ball to athletes in space and letting them do the work. Harold Fannin Jr. is a player who would undoubtedly thrive...
