The average Cleveland Browns fan has already lived through a full generation’s worth of bad football. We’re going on three decades now since the franchise was revitalized in 1999, and Cleveland’s beloved Browns have achieved exactly four winning seasons over that 27-year span — while rifling through 12 different head coaches and 10 general managers.
The Browns have never been afraid of hitting the reset button, especially since Jimmy Haslam bought the team in 2012. In fact, Kevin Stefanski quietly reached a pretty significant milestone in franchise history this year, when he became the team’s longest-tenured coach since Bill Belichick’s five seasons from 1991-95; none of the Browns 11 head coaches since had lasted more than three or four years before getting shown the door.
Yes, the current Browns roster desperately needs a left tackle and No. 1 wide receiver. But what the franchise really needs is stability — something Stefanski embodied when he took over in 2020 but has since let crumble into an all-too-familiar situation for Browns fans to stomach.
The Cleveland Browns’ next move at head coach and GM just became painfully obvious
Browns fans have been demanding change for months, and Zac Jackson of The Athletic is in full lockstep after Sunday’s embarrassing, 31-3 loss to the Chicago Bears.
On one hand, Cleveland was severely undermanned due to injuries, and young quarterback Shedeur Sanders battled behind an offensive line of mostly backups, as well as a depleted skill position group.
On the other hand, every Browns fan knew their team was cooked after Chicago’s Devin Duvernay took the opening kickoff 52 yards out to the Cleveland 35. Sanders may have given the team a spark over the last month, but the team lacks talent, direction, and the kind of juice it would take to knock off a playoff contender like the Bears — or the Buffalo Bills this week, for that matter.
“There aren’t many reasons, if any, that support Stefanski and (GM Andrew Berry) getting a seventh season and another chance to oversee this necessary rebuild,” Jackson wrote. “After a big day by Garrett in Las Vegas in late November, paired with the first start for rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders, provided a jolt and a reason to watch the rest of the season, the Browns have since delivered three consecutive losses that have featured different failures in big moments and a team struggling to run the ball and tackle opposing backs. It’s bleak. Everything.
With three games remaining, it’s past time for team ownership to realize that 2024 was not a one-year detour. It’s time to prepare for a different future with different people in charge, one that is finally on the horizon.”
The Stafanski-Berry regime definitely deserves a break for the Deshaun Watson mess, which falls more on ownership than the coach and GM. You could argue they got that break by surviving last year’s 3-14 campaign, but unless the team can pull off an upset win over these next three weeks, they’ll be 3-14 and likely back around the No. 2 overall draft slot for the second time in as many years.
Draft pick forecast! pic.twitter.com/7954AG4Z1b
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) December 15, 2025
Browns fans are sick of the high draft picks. They want winners, and Sunday’s uncompetitive debacle in Chicago should be the final straw. The GM’s roster has significant holes, and the coach’s message has obviously run stale.
Fans would rather relive the hope of that 2020 season, than run it back with a leadership group now mired in a 6-25 slump. Thanks to the team’s most recent performance, they may soon get their wish.