Browns Kevin Stefanski hot seat: What, me worry?

Cleveland head coach focusing on blocking out the nonsense in a season of disappointment.

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski is in an unfavorable position – at least to some – as he prepares the Browns for Thursday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Browns enter the game having lost seven of their last eight games. During the streak, the offense has only scored more than 16 points once – in their surprising Week 8 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. And that is even after turning the offense over to quarterback Jameis Winston and his “inspirational” brand of football, which is heavy on garbage-time stats and low on actually doing things that help win a game.

Then there is the fact this week’s opponent is the Steelers, a team that has been the proverbial final nail in the coffin for Browns coaches over the years. Since 2008, the Browns have fired six head coaches following a loss to the Steelers:

• Romeo Crennel, after a 31-0 loss to close out the 2008 season
• Eric Mangini, after a 41-9 loss to close out the 2010 season
• Pat Shurmur, after a 24-10 loss to close out the 2012 season
• Rob Chudzinski, after a 20-7 loss to close out the 2013 season
• Mike Pettine, after a 28-12 loss to close out the 2015 season
• Hue Jackson, after a 33-18 loss in Week 8 of the 2018 season

The only full-time head coach during that time frame to avoid a similar fate was Freddie Kitchens, but that is only because the Browns faced the Bengals in Kitchens’ last game as head coach, a 33-23 loss to end the 2019 season.

But wait! There’s more!

Keen – or so they thought – observers spotted former head coach and current consultant Mike Vrabel with an earpiece on the sidelines during Sunday’s debacle against the Saints. Never mind that Vrabel has been in the same position for all of Cleveland’s home games this season, his presence must surely mean something is up in Berea!

So with the pressure of a lost season, never-ending chatter on local radio and social media, and the always present “trigger finger” of owner Jimmy Haslam just itching to dispatch another head coach (ignore that it has been several years since Haslam actually acted in haste) and surely Stefanski must be losing sleep.

Well, not according to the man himself, as Stefanski remains focused on the task at head rather than the outside noise (quote via a team-provided transcript):

“I think probably because I grew up listening to (Philadelphia sports talk), I’m smart enough to not worry about outside noise. I get that’s part of this gig. That’s life in the big city. My sole focus is getting this team ready to get a win on Thursday night. That’s it.”

Has this season been anything other than a disappointment? No, it has not. Are the numerous injuries, especially along the offensive line the fault of the head coach? No, they are not. Should a two-time NFL Coach of the Year have realized before the season began that the quarterback the team traded three No. 1 draft picks for and gave a $230 million guaranteed contract was going to see his play hit historic lows and should be relegated to the emergency QB status each week? Maybe, but ownership may not have gone along with that plan.

Very little has gone right this season for the Browns, and Stefanski shares in the blame as the head coach. But if he was a good enough head coach to lead the Browns to the playoffs twice over the past four seasons—the first Cleveland head coach to accomplish that since Marty Schottenheimer in the late 1980s—then he is still a good enough head coach to continue to be the head coach going forward.

And firing coaches in a reactionary manner is what has helped the Browns finish with a losing record 21 times (and counting) since returning to the NFL in 1999.

The rest of the season is going to be a rough ride, but one way to ensure that things get worse would be to fire Stefanski.

No matter what talk radio and social media would have you believe.