The Browns are destined for their second-straight losing season, and it seems like Browns owner Jimmy Haslam may finally be willing to make some leadership changes. Mike Jones of The Athletic wrote about the situation this past weekend, noting that the Browns will consider multiple paths as they look to revive the organization.
[RELATED: Colorado Rockies Hire Browns’ Paul DePodesta]
According to Jones, some believe Haslam is ready to “clean house.” There are other league insiders who believe GM Andrew Berry may be safe while head coach Kevin Stefanski will be the lone scapegoat for another lost season. The duo was added ahead of the 2020 campaign and immediately guided the Browns to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. The team hovered around .500 over the next two years before another playoff appearance in 2023. However, the team has bottomed out over the past year-plus, compiling a 6-22 record.
The head coach’s hot seat isn’t overly surprising. While Stefanski has earned a pair of Coach of the Year awards since joining Cleveland, he still has a losing record in five-plus seasons with the organization. While the team’s revolving door at QB hasn’t helped the coach’s cause, the offensive-minded Stefanski has also struggled recently to get that unit on track, leading to him handing over offensive play-calling duties in each of the past two seasons.
Berry’s situation is a bit more unique. As Jones writes, there’s a belief that the general manager may have had more recent success if not for the “meddlesome ways of ownership.” This obviously includes the Deshaun Watson acquisition and the subsequent commitment of $230MM in guaranteed money. Perhaps Haslam will be willing to give his top executive an opportunity to clean up the mess, although that may also require the owner to acknowledge that he played a key role in the team’s recent demise.
The front office is already seeing a bit of a transition, as longtime Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta returned to Major League Baseball as the Colorado Rockies head of baseball operations. Albert Breer of SI.com recently wrote that DePodesta’s Cleveland role was always “mysterious,” although he did work extensively with Berry. Breer adds that the Browns organization isn’t expected to replace DePodesta.
Gasp
Interested to hear from Browns fans as I don’t watch them often. Is it fair to blame Stefanski when they haven’t had a good QB? Is it more that just a new voice is needed at this point?
Whose fault is it. People lying to themselves like he didn’t run off Baker Mayfield and then endorse trading for Watson. Not to mention that he didn’t tailor his offense for him after he got him. It’s all his fault. Even the way he’s handled those two rookies is something a moron would do. Put two rookies in the room with each other with no veteran presence at all when every successful QB will tell you they learned just as much from their peers on the depth chart as they did from the coaches. But we’re just supposed to believe that Baker Mayfield got way better after he left and Watson got worse when he got there, and poor little Kevin was an innocent bystander for it all.
“It’s all his fault”??????? The most important factor in an offense’s success is its offensive line, and the Browns line has played poorly this season and last. Andrew Berry got praise for this year’s draft class, but supporters overlook that he completely ignored the aging and ineffective offensive line. I’ve always blamed Jimmy Haslam for bringing Deshaun Watson to Cleveland, an horrific mistake whether viewed from the issue of cap space, on-field production, or team character. Berry is the guy responsible for the 53 man roster, and routinely has missed on so-called skill position players. Stefanski does not make the draft choices, trades, or final say on the roster. Kevin Stefanski certainly has areas he could improve on, but solely blaming him for team results with the roster he’s been given and calling him a “moron” because he, like any other person with a functioning brain, couldn’t figure out the quarterback morass that was laid at his feet, is short-sighted and invalid.
He had the same QB that took him to the playoffs two years ago. He didnt coach up the weapons to help him. With the Bengals, Flacco is averaging 28 points per game.
I heard an interesting theory on some radio show that the crazy way Stafanski has handled the QB situation this season is because he’s trying to get himself canned… and I couldn’t completely dismiss the idea. He’s far from perfect, but he’s also not an idiot. He might very well be sick to death of Haslam’s meddling and Berry’s frequent lap-dog incompetence.
The problem here is that Haslam is very unlikely to admit fault here. And cleaning house is admitting fault.
Should have been years ago. It’s a buffoonish regime.
Notice when that “hot seat” story was published? Last Friday, two days before a feel-good win for Cleveland.
Browns have 4 of their next 5 at home and if they can’t carry the good vibes from that Vegas win over …
The owner should get thrown out with the coaches. Sorry for all the faithful Browns fans friends who are suffering through this inept regime
The Whole Cleveland Brown organization should be on the Hot Seat!!
Browns let Stefanski go, Giants should jump all over him
I bet Stefanski would be a great OC for a contender with talent.
Stefanski is a good coach who’s made some bad decisions (or gone along with them, which is how it seems to me). It’s for that reason that he deserve blame for this current situation; however, of the two mentioned above, he definitely deserves less of it than Berry. Berry has had Haslam’s ear for some time now, and he’s the one who made the decisions to waste picks that he diligently acquired for mind boggingly catastrophic results (mostly referring to Watson, of course, but the lack of clear draft strategy after in general also factors in).
Berry isn’t totally inept, but he’s has had a lot of chances in size plus years to use some of his draft acquisition treasure trove to add quality m, long term players-and yet, most of the Browns’ stars were added by John Dorsey’s regime, instead. Dorsey is in Detroit now, who has had great success in the draft (just as Kansas City did with Dorsey prior to his Browns turn). Berry is the one who proposed the Watson deal that buried Cleveland, he provided Stefanski with a replacement for Mayfield since the Watson failure,
I definitely think that Stefanski deserves blame for being a yes man and going along with the plans, for not adequately preparing Sanders (probably where this friction stems from this year), and for endorsing the Watson deal, but he’s also shown value as a coach. He’ll probably have more opportunities to redeem his reputation elsewhere should he be fired. Podesta leaving for Colorado probably bodes ill for this operation, but I hold him as Chief Strategy Officer and Berry as General Manager much more responsible for the bad roster aexercises in futility that Stefanski has had to try and coach his way out of.