3 Cleveland Browns grades at the bye week

Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski: Grade: C-

When a team struggles in professional sports, the first name to be blamed is the head coach. Kevin Stefanski is definitely part of the problem but he continues to admit he needs to be better and promises that he will do so.

In Stefanki’s rookie season as an NFL head coach, he exceeded expectations by leading the Browns to the playoffs which ended an 18-year playoff drought and won a playoff game for the first time since 1994.

However, it is safe to say that Stefanski has hit his sophomore slump.

While all of the blame is not on Stefanski, he and Baker Mayfield are currently making each other worse.

Since Mayfield is playing through all of these different injuries, it forces Stefanski to call plays differently. He’s limited to the plays he can call in order to keep Mayfield healthy.

Possibly due to the scheme, Cleveland really has no vertical offense and severely struggles to throw the ball downfield. Receivers aren’t open and the Browns really have no true wide receiver one. The Browns certainly need to look to the draft to address the problem at receiver but for now, Stefanski needs to scheme up ways to get his playmakers the ball downfield.

Opposing teams are able to stack the box to help stop the run against Cleveland because they know that it’s hard for them to push the ball downfield.

The Browns have also committed an unreasonable amount of penalties this season which is ultimately on Stefanski. The pre-snap penalties such as false start and illegal formation are unacceptable.

It’s way past time for Stefanski to also tell Mayfield that he will not be playing. As we all know, Mayfield is one of the league’s toughest players but why send him out there week after week when he is not improving? Now, as long as Mayfield is medically cleared he is the team’s starter. Stefanski needs to sit down with Baker and tell him that the team is better off without him while he recovers from injury.

While the Browns will not be moving on from Stefanski anytime soon, he certainly needs to be better and should possibly even consider handing the play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.