We’re torpedoing towards another long offseason for the Cleveland Browns, and similar to the end of 2024, calls for owner Jimmy Haslam to fire head coach Kevin Stefanski (and potentially general manager Andrew Berry) figure to grow louder.
It’s a complicated situation, though.
For starters, both Stefanski and Berry signed contract extensions back in June of 2024, on the heels of the team’s 11-win season that ended with Joe Flacco leading the Browns to the wild-card round of the AFC playoffs. Money talks in the NFL, so the team’s decision to keep Stefanski, and fire offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, at the end of last year’s brutal, 3-14 campaign made sense (fiscal sense, at least).
This January, it will be a lot tougher to justify a similar path to Browns fans, after yet another season of quarterback roulette, and an offense that’s somehow gotten worse; entering their Week 14 game against the Tennessee Titans, the Browns rank tied for 32nd in yards per play and 29th in scoring.
While the team’s 2025 rookie class has been providing immediate returns, the offense has been hampered by an aging offensive line, a sub-par wide receiver group, and a quarterback room consisting of two ill-prepared rookies and Deshaun Watson, who hasn’t played a snap since Week 7 of 2024 and remains a mystery.
So, again, it’s complicated. Stefanski is a good coach who would likely land an offensive coordinator job immediately if he’s fired next month. But his team is now 6-23 over the past two seasons, and there aren’t many wins in sight with Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati remaining on the schedule after the Titans this week.
It’s feeling more and more likely that this season will be the end for the Stefanski regime, and there’s one perfect candidate that the franchise should target as the 23rd head coach in team history.
Brian Flores has been waiting for a second chance, and the Browns should give it to him
The Browns interviewed current Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores for their head coach vacancy back in 2019, but he ended up landing with the Miami Dolphins. It didn’t end well there, however, as issues with owner Stephen Ross and a botched relationship with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa led to him getting fired in 2021 after a 9-8 season, his second winning season in his three years there.
Flores spent a year as a defensive assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers before landing with the Vikings as their DC in 2023. Minnesota’s defenses have wrecked havoc since his arrival there, and there might not be a more innovative defensive mind in the NFL right now. The Vikings are 4-8, yet still rank No. 10 in football in EPA per play, per Sumer Sports.
The obvious issue is Flores’ ongoing lawsuit with the NFL over alleged racial discrimination in the hiring, retention and firing of coaches and executives. The Browns are not among the NFL teams named in the suit, though, and the legal battle did not deter Flores from interviewing with the Jets, Bears and Jaguars during last year's hiring cycle.
Flores has admitted fault for his part of the Tagovailoa/Dolphins debacle and has been awaiting a second chance. The timing could be perfect in 2026, as he figures to be among the headliners of this year’s hiring class. It’s also the right time to split Minnesota, which looks headed for a reset of its own after dropping six of its last seven games.
The Browns obviously need to fix their offense, and Flores might not be the sexiest name for that part of the job. But he could turn Cleveland’s defense into a championship-level group overnight, and his intense and aggressive style would resonate well with the Dawg Pound faithful.
Flores would need to sell the Haslams on his plan for the offensive staff, and how the team will fix its ongoing fiasco at quarterback. But when teams fire an offensive-minded coach, like Stefanski, they often go with a defensive guru the next time around.
Only 44 years old with a ton of experience under Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin, and Kevin O’Connell, Flores should be at the top of Cleveland’s wish list if things continue to pan out how Browns fans expect in 2025.