Head coach Kevin Stefanski has stuck to an in-house hire for the Browns next offensive coordinator, hiring Tommy Rees as the team's new OC ahead of their 2025 campaign per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network.
Rees, who was the Browns tight end coach and pass game specialist this past season, gets the promotion from Stefanski directly. He's now going to be where the Browns start with their search for a starting quarterback for 2025, as Rees will be working alongside Stefanski to shape a game plan for whoever that is going to be.
This hire also signals that Stefanski is looking to take over play calling duties once again. With both having experience with working alongside one another from last season, it's fair to assume that Stefanski wanted to bring Rees up to OC to increase their collaboration while also maintaining his autonomy as the play caller in Cleveland.
Rees hire's impact on offense and quarterback search
The hiring of Rees is a good one, considering that he was able to coach up players like Blake Whiteheart and Jordan Akins throughout the season with David Njoku in and out of games with a variety of injuries. In fact, it feels safe to assume that Rees will be bringing along with him a lot of the play calling he formulated for those tight ends into his game planning for next season.
Tight end production in 2024 for the Browns was solid, but it was just a lack of consistently good quarterback play that held them and the wide receivers on the team back.
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As far as this impacting the Browns quarterback search goes, it shows that Stefanski is going to have a heavy say in who the team pursues either in the draft or in free agency. Rees is obviously competent enough to run the show as a play caller at OC, but Stefanski and Rees will be pretty collaborative on the search for a primary signal caller, it seems.
Stefanski is known for liking quarterbacks who can stay strong in the pocket and make accurate, deep throws downfield. In addition, he has shown he can work with quarterbacks who do well in play-action, which is why Joe Flacco really thrived in 2023. There aren't a ton of quarterbacks in the draft that'll be able to execute that immediately for the Browns.
So, expect to see Stefanski go after a free agent that he knows can learn his style of offense, and now Rees's, pretty quickly.