3 biggest Cleveland Browns scapegoats during terrible campaign
By Randy Gurzi
1. Kevin Stefanski, Head Coach
Last but not least, we have head coach Kevin Stefanski.
Since re-joining the NFL in 1999, the Cleveland Browns have had 12 head coaches ‚— including the two interims. Those interims were Terry Robiskie in 2004 who went 1-4. Gregg Williams served in that role in 2018 and was 5-3 — giving him the best winning percentage of all coaches since the team’s return.
As for the 10 who were hired as head coaches, none have had a winning record other than Kevin Stefanski. In his first two-plus seasons, he’s 22-21 and that’s including their recent skid. Before that, the best record for those 10 coaches belonged to Butch Davis who went 24-35 and was the only coach other than Stefanski to get Cleveland into the playoffs.
So to summarize, there has been no stability at the position and no consistent winning. That’s why so many are calling for the Browns to move on from Stefanski despite the fact that he’s orchestrated a top-10 offense with Jacoby Brissett under center.
Even those who don’t want him fired are calling for him to at least surrender play-calling duties. That won’t make much of a difference anyway, since the game plans would be the same and he would be over-seeing what Alex Van Pelt called, but that’s how desperate fans are to blame Stefanski.
What we should be doing, is looking at this season for what it is — a chance to fix things in 2023. At this point, they were unable to stay afloat while awaiting Deshaun Watson’s return to action but are about to get six weeks with him under center.
That’s when the real evaluation starts. If Stefanski and the offense falter, then the conversation should change. If that doesn’t happen, then the focus should be on what changes need to be made to the roster and staff to contend in 2023 and beyond.
This season hasn’t been good but to call for major changes is a knee-jerk reaction. This franchise has had enough of that in 22 years, so it would be nice to allow this staff at least one season with their guy under center before placing all the blame on them.
