The Cleveland Browns fired Head Coach Kevin Stefanski after yet another unfortunate season, and GM Andrew Berry will remain with the team.
“There was no breaking point, we just felt it was time for a change,” Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said, according to ESPN. Stefanski finished with a 45-56 record as the Cleveland Browns head coach.
A season ago, the Browns finished with the second-worst record in the NFL, at 3-14. This season, the Browns were riddled with injuries and poor performance, especially at Quarterback.
The Atlanta Falcons just hired Stefanski on a five-year deal. He is set to join a stacked offensive group with guys like Bijan Robinson and Drake London.
Stefanski took the Browns to two playoff appearances in 2020 and 2023; however, he has only won one playoff game in those two years.
Last off-season, the Browns were labeled with one of the most promising draft classes in the league. They drafted the sure Defensive Rookie of the Year (DROY), in Carson Schwesinger, with the first pick of the second round. With the fifth overall pick, they selected Mason Graham out of Michigan, who had a solid rookie season. In the fifth round, they selected the most controversial quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders from Colorado. Sanders started the final seven games of the season and finished the year with 1,400 yards, 7 Tds, and 10 Ints.
However, the one move that has tainted the Browns over the past three years has been the Deshaun Watson trade with the Texans. Cleveland traded three first-rounders and multiple other draft picks. However, the big story that was released earlier this week is that Kevin Stefanski was actually against the trade, according to Brownswire. The Watson deal will go down as one of the worst trades in NFL history and set the Browns back multiple years.
Throughout Kevin Stefanski’s tenure in Cleveland, he had to deal with 13 different starting quarterbacks, a high number in the modern NFL. The Browns, who are notorious for having 42 different starting quarterbacks since 1999, have had 13 since 2020, a league high.
The Browns will now begin their search for a new Head Coach. Cleveland’s front office has requested to interview five different coaches, according to Browns.com, including current Browns Offensive Coordinator (OC) Tommy Rees, who just finished his first season as a coordinator and is a candidate for the Head Coach position.
Browns Defensive Coordinator (DC) Jim Schwartz has also been chosen by the Browns to be interviewed for the position, according to Browns.com. Since the staff in 2023, Cleveland’s defense has been ranked at the top of the league with Schwartz as the DC. Schwartz is a former Head Coach with the Detroit Lions for five seasons. He had a poor record with the Lions at 29-51. The only highlight was a ten-win season in 2011 that took the Lions to the playoffs.
Cleveland has requested to interview Jaguars Offensive Coordinator Grant Udinski for a second time, which will be in-person, according to Browns.com. Udinski’s first interview with Cleveland was over Zoom and lasted over 3 hours, according to The Dawgs Podcast. If Cleveland were to hire Udinski, he would become the youngest coach in NFL history at only 30 years old.
