Jimmy Haslam defended the Browns’ controversial decision that has fans furious

Jimmy Haslam has spoken, and as usual, fans of the Cleveland Browns aren’t loving what their team’s owner of the past 13-plus years had to say on the morning of Black Monday.

The Browns officially parted ways with head coach Kevin Stefanski, despite the team rallying for back-to-back wins against AFC North opponents to close the 2025 regular season. Haslam called the move “extremely difficult,” as Stefanski brought respectability, playoff berths, and class to the Browns over his six years on the job.

Browns fans were ready for a change, however, after the team managed just eight combined wins over the past two seasons. To his credit, Haslam acted swiftly, telling reporters that the team’s head coach search will begin as soon as Monday afternoon.

In the same breath, he left Browns fans completely baffled while discussing the team’s decision to not only retain GM Andrew Berry, but let him lead the search for their next coach.

Browns’ GM decision only adds to the franchise’s dysfunction

Haslam clearly hates that the word "dysfunction" has become synonymous with the Browns under his family’s ownership, but he continues to do himself no favors.

He defended Berry’s 2025 roster on Monday, lauding the GM for finding underrated defensive tackle Maliek Collins in free agency, swinging a savvy in-season trade for cornerback Tyson Campbell, finally finding a reliable kicker in Andre Szmyt, and infusing the team with productive young talent in the 2025 NFL Draft.

“I think this year we not only added really good players, but also really good people,” Haslam said. “And I think that core that Andrew has put together this year will help move up forward. We hope to have similar results this coming year.”

Ultimately, Haslam felt the Browns’ 2025 roster was better than the team’s 5-12 record, which is the kind of thinking that sends die-hard fans right off the deep end.

It’s painfully obvious that Cleveland’s roster was flawed from the start, with Berry’s game of musical chairs at the quarterback position at the top of the list. The team learned of Deshaun Watson’s re-ruptured Achilles’ tendon in January. Their response was to trade for journeyman Kenny Pickett, sign 40-year-old Joe Flacco and, in a decision that’s still to this day hard to fathom, burn third- and fifth-round draft picks on Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. 

Those moves left Sanders — who turned out to be the best of that bunch — getting fourth-string reps in training camp, based on the GM’s roster construction. The team’s decision to eventually trade both Pickett and Flacco only made an awkward situation more comical — and we haven’t even mentioned the team’s lack of a left tackle or No. 1 wide receiver. 

Two things can be true: It was the right time to move on from Stefanski, even though his boss put him in an impossible situation in 2025. The Browns literally finished the year with rookies as their leading passer, rusher, receiver, and tackler — and none of them were first-round draft picks.

The brutal truth? Berry played a starring role in the mess Cleveland currently finds itself in, and his role in Stefanski’s ousting is nothing but a giant slap in the face.