The Cardinals and Titans’ decisions during and after the 2022 season reveal how quickly organizations’ big-picture plans can change. After signing lengthy offseason extensions, Steve Keim and Jon Robinson were out of jobs by January 2023. The Browns’ historic Deshaun Watson misstep would naturally point to consideration into bailing on the extensions given to Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski.
A Browns ownership group known for quick-trigger decisions for a long time finally found a coach-GM pair it deemed worthy of extending. Prior to Stefanski’s arrival, no Browns HC had lasted longer than 40 games; the coach who did persist for that long (Hue Jackson) went 3-36-1. Under the Haslams’ leadership, no GM had lasted longer than two full seasons (John Dorsey). Berry changed that as well. As it stands, the current Cleveland football-ops bosses are on track to extend those tenures.
Although both Browns power brokers were believed to be aligned on the 2022 Watson trade, SI.com’s Albert Breer notes the Haslams are not planning to make GM or HC changes in 2025. Browns ownership has been pleased with the way the duo has kept the team unified, even as this year’s squad has fallen well short of expectations after a 2023 playoff berth and the Browns entering the season with an NFL-most 12 players signed to eight-figure-per-year contracts.
Despite Watson’s poor play appearing to seal the 2022 trade’s place as the worst in NFL history (when finances are considered), the staffers tasked with making it work will be given a chance to rebound — likely with a new starting quarterback. Jimmy Haslam said soon after the trade Berry hatched the plan to fully guarantee the $230MM contract to move the Browns back in the race — after Watson had eliminated Cleveland from consideration in an otherwise-NFC South-based sweepstakes — so it would stand to reason his seat could be hotter than Stefanski’s given the latter’s accolades. Right now, though, neither’s seat appears too warm.
Cleveland’s Jameis Winston-led victory in a snowstorm moved the team to 3-8. This year’s Browns are on pace to check in with a worse record than they did under Freddie Kitchens (6-10). That season keyed Dorsey’s ouster, but it appears the Haslams will be uncharacteristically patient despite the Watson trade set to plague the Browns for at least two more years. The capital Stefanski and Berry have built through playoff berths in 2020 and ’23, both seasons producing Stefanski Coach of the Year nods, looks to be enough for the tandem to survive the historic QB mistake.
On the Watson front, Breer adds the Browns are likely to keep him around — if only because of the unfathomable dead money a 2025 release would bring — but add competition. Rather than bring in a backup as the team has done for three straight years (Jacoby Brissett, Dorian Thompson-Robinson/Joe Flacco, Winston), the Browns are expected to set their sights on a starter-caliber arm who can compete with Watson. Given Watson’s poor performance and Achilles tear, it probably should be expected the Browns will shop for a new starter soon.
This player may well need to be a draft choice, due to Watson’s contract — now featuring two $72.9MM cap numbers thanks to two Berry-authorized restructures — running through 2026. But Breer adds the Browns are likely to gauge the veteran market as well.
Stefanski and Berry stopped short of saying Watson will be expected to start again in 2025, though each factored the struggling QB’s injury rehab into the equation. Watson, however, saw his season end after a string of woeful performances, which brought questions to Stefanski about whether ownership was making him start the disappointing QB. It would cost the Browns $172MM to release Watson next year; even in a post-June 1 scenario, either half of the two-offseason dead money bill would break the record the Broncos recently shattered with their Russell Wilson release ($83MM-plus).
As the Browns prepare to pursue a potential new starter, Watson may be set for another season in limbo. After he requested a Texans trade only to see a slew of sexual assault/misconduct allegations surface, Houston made the former Pro Bowler a healthy scratch throughout the 2021 season. The Browns could slow-play Watson’s rehab by stashing him on the reserve/PUP list to start next season, but eventually a call to bench the sunk-cost passer will need to be made.
A post-June 1 cut scenario now looks more likely to involve 2026. Unless another restructure again knocks down Watson’s cap hit — which is quite possible considering no team has ever carried a $50MM-plus cap number on a payroll in-season — it would cost the Browns $99.8MM to dump Watson in 2026.
It is far from certain Berry and Stefanski will be making the decisions by then, an ownership duo famous for impulsive moves during its first several years in charge is not ready to pull the plug on what had been a successful regime (well, absent a quarterback move that has otherwise defined its run).
They can’t even pick the right rapist.
Whether or not we assume that Watson was more of an ownership mandate than a Berry or Stefanski call (which I do assume it was), I would say those guys have done very good jobs outside of the Watson move. But also, what good candidate would you get to replace them when you have this inoperable tumor at the heart of your team and salary cap? It’s not like anyone else can come in and wipe up the mess. If I were a sought after candidate for either job, Cleveland would be the very last place I would go, and I say that as someone who sees *really* big problems with the Jets, Jaguars, Saints, or Cowboys jobs.
The Browns actually assembled a good roster – if they could have just got that one piece right…
One thing that keeps getting lost in the Watson fiasco is that Houston did not bench him because Watson is a sexual predator, it was Watson who refused to play for the team he had signed an extension for in September 2020.
David Culley tried to talk him into playing but he refused. As a Texans’ fan, and a woman, I think that’s a good thing, I would have had a tough time rooting for that human cesspool.
There are a lot of bad owners in a league that seemingly has a license to print money.
They sooooo deserve this. How do you give the best (at the time) QB contract to a despicable human being like this? Hope he never starts another game.
Kevin Stefanki deserved Coach of the Year for 2020, not for 2023.
And Josh Allen should have won MVP last year. If we’re doing this, I want to make sure we get other things that don’t seem to change the fact that Watson is the problem with this team, but that no one can publically admit it as long as they’re tied to him.
Pretty much this entire article clearly lays out every reason why Berry and Stefanski should be fired. Just do it, Jimmy.
The Browns could offer Watson a Brady type ownership stake then install Jimmy Haslam as the starting QB. Problem solved 🙂
Just like the movie Heaven Can Wait
Instead of draining the toilet and fixing the plumbing these idiots add more turds to the bowl and have a competition for the most buoyant. Brilliant !!!
The Browns will win 6 in a row and cigars and extensions for everyone and a Hall of Fame Bust as well
That script is just weird enough to be a sequel to “A Clockwork Orange”.
Well, it’s a bit of a reach, maybe 3 and 3 is more likely, but they would make the playoffs if they won out
What they need is an ownership change