Cleveland Browns: 3 reasons Kevin Stefanski could be on hot seat
By John Suchan
2. Just Win Baby!
Wins and losses in the NFL are everything. If you’re a head coach in the league you know that reality. Al Davis, the former owner of the Oakland Raiders once coined that saying, “Just win Baby” after his team had just crushed the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.
The good news for Stefanski in this department is that he got off to such a good start in 2020 as his team went 11-5. After going 8-9 last year he is holding onto a 19-14 record.
So, the coach is just winning baby, but we have year three ahead of us. Before Stefanski, the last Browns coach to even have a winning single-season record was Romeo Crennel who took his 2007 team to a 10-6 record. Before that, it was 2002, when then Browns coach Butch Davis helped the team to a 9-7 record and an appearance in a playoff game.
Both Crennel and Davis lasted three or more seasons with Cleveland, so that bodes well for Stefanski.
We don’t have any track record on Stefanski as a head coach because he had spent many years as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Vikings. While he was there, the Vikings were winning most years. Wherever Stefanski has been, even as a player when he played high school football at St. Joseph Prep in the Philadelphia region and then played college football at Penn, his teams had success. Stefanski has had a long history of showing that he is a student of the game.
At times, especially in this last season when Stefanski would try to force his good fortunes and make some interesting play calls, like having his offense try to go for it on fourth down plays, his smartness came across as a bit too stuffy and arrogant. Those moments, when his team failed to covert, led to a few losses this past season. The bigger the risk the bigger the reward. If those conversations had been successful, then we’re planning Stefanski’s induction into the Hall of Fame.
I expect the Browns to win this season. They have the talent, and they have the schedule, especially early in the season to get off to a fast start. If that doesn’t happen, then Stefanski will certainly be in trouble. That may be more so with public opinion at that point but as we have seen with other things, once the momentum gets going in the world of public opinion, it’s hard to stop.