Dawgs By Nature
The day after the regular season is dubbed “Black Monday”. It’s the day that NFL head coaches and GMs of the eliminated playoff teams find out if their key cards will work after the day is over. Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was relieved of his duties, but general manager Andrew Berry was not. It was a surprise to most people that Stefanski was let go, but Berry wasn’t, since they were so tied at the hip.
Fans tend not to read too much into situations like this, but anyone who watched closely enough knew that Berry was going to get away from this unscathed, whether he should have or not.
One might ask, why? A full house cleaning never made sense, nor would it have been good for the team. If owner Jimmy Haslem wanted to clean house, last season was the opportunity to do it. Instead, Haslem opted to keep both Berry and Stefanski. The recent success of his draft class led to him being safe this season. Regardless of what fans will think about Berry and his draft history, the average hit rate for a draft class is around 30%. It’s not particularly high, and it’s extremely rare to hit on an entire class.
It’s clear that ownership has taken responsibility for the Deshaun Watson trade, with Berry receiving enough trust in the owner to get the team back to playoff contention. The rebuild is going to plan despite the shortcomings offensively, which should give fans some form of optimism. Berry isn’t free of criticism, but his roster construction has been decent (two years the Browns made the playoffs with good enough rosters), and building one of the top defenses in the league is something that Berry can receive credit for. Berry escaping from “Black Monday” wasn’t a surprise, but now he has to find a new head coach to help lead the Browns in 2026.
Finding a new head coach, addressing the entire offense, and finding players in both the draft and free agency is not an easy task, but Berry has the support of the owner to get the job done. If not, he will be the next one out the door.
