You would think by winning AP Coach of the Year twice that Kevin Stefanski wouldnt be coaching for his job after only five years in his tenure as Cleveland Browns Head Coach. Well, you would be wrong.
After yet another disappointing (that’s putting it mildly) season the Browns find themselves with more questions than answers. One thing however is clear, a rebuild is coming. Who’ll be maning the helm however, is a question that still needs to be figured out. Current head coach Kevin Stefanski’s job security is more uncertain than its ever been.
Kevin Stefanski was hired on January 13th 2020 to replace the incompetent Freddie Kitchens as head coach. From watching his introductory press conference he made his goals for this team apparent. He wanted to build a team that could contend for a Super Bowl, and in his first season as head coach he looked to be doing just that. Stefanski was named AP Coach of the Year, the first Browns coach to win the award since Forrest Gregg in 1976. The team finished with a 11-5 record, had a franchise quarterback in Baker Mayfield, and for the first time in nearly two decades a bright future. This success however was extremely short-lived.
Under Stefanski’s leadership, the two years that followed were disastrous to say the least. Team chemistry eroded to the point of public bickering between Baker Mayfield and out spoken WR Odell Beckham Jr. Mayfield, who suffered through several shoulder injuries saw his once stellar play decline to the point he lost the starting QB job.
With all the failures and setbacks over these 5 years, it’s not all on the shoulders of Kevin Stefanski. A person who is also to blame for Cleveland’s ineptitude is General Manager Andrew Berry. Whether it’s high-maintenance primadonnas like Beckham Jr, overpaid veterans like John Johnson III and Jadaveon Clowney, or disappointing draft picks such as Sika Ika and Jedrick Wills Jr, Berry clearly has a problem acquiring quality players.
That being said it be wrong to say Kevin Stefanski is void of blame either. The main stat reflecting his ineptitude are the amount of penalties the team has racked up. Since Stefanski’s first season as head coach the Browns have been charged with the 3rd most penalties in the NFL only behind the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. Cleveland has also led the league in pre snap penalties for 3 years straight. These type of penalties being repeatedly committed points to poor communication, and moreover bad coaching.
Another area where Stefanski has failed in is player development. We all seemingly watched as once promising defensive back Greg Newsome turn almost into a liability in coverage in a span of a offseason. Last season Newsome received a 74.4 PFF coverage grade, a grade that would rank him 30th among all cornerbacks. This season he received a PFF coverage grade of only 54.0, ranking him 163rd out of 223 qualifying defensive backs. A steep decline such as this can be attributed to a number of reasons from changes in technique to positional mismatches. The fact that he continued to struggle the entire season without any sign of improvement is due in part to Stefanski and his staff’s mismanagement.
There’s one thing you can say about Stefanski, if he’s gone he’s going out his own way. The Browns recently announced they’ll be promoting Tight End coach Tommy Ress to offensive coordinator. Given the fact that the offense ranked toward the bottom in most statistics, this move was met with a fair share of scrutiny. Rees’ promotion was mostly due to his familiarity with coach Stefanski. We’ll expect to see a return to a more run balanced offense now that Kevin Stefanski has resumed play calling duties. Halfway through this season Stefanski temporarily handed off play calling to then offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. Dorsey, who then apparently took a page out of the late great Mike Leach’s air raid playbook, turned the Browns into the most pass heavy team in the NFL. Throwing the ball 70% of the time usually works…..in Madden, but not so much in real life. Cleveland finished 2-8 under Dorsey’s play calling and he was fired shortly after the season.
The weird thing about all of this is that I don’t think he’s a bad coach. Kevin Stefanski is without a doubt the best head coach we’ve had since coming back in 1999. Unfortunately that doesn’t matter much when your competition are former coaches like Hue Jackson, Pat Shurmur, and Rob Chudzinski (Chud should’ve got more than one year) . While i think he’s done an above average job here, it looks like he’s just a another name on a long list of former coordinators who couldnt crack it as head coaches. From Adam Gase to Rex Ryan the leagues seen them all come and go.
I believe Stefanski is a decent coach, the problem with that is he’s JUST a decent coach. The Browns have failed to have any type of sustained success since coming back to the league in 1999. For this to change we can’t settle for a coach that’s just decent. I appreciate coach Stefanski for everything he’s done, but unless the team shocks the world by making a playoff run, it appears his time as Cleveland Browns head coach is coming to an end.
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