Kevin Stefanski blindsided Browns players with stunning QB decision in Week 7

The hits keep coming for Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski - this time, in the form of a Cleveland radio talk show exposing the fact that he shocked players ahead of Week 7 with his decision to promote Dorian Thompson-Robinson to backup while demoting Jameis Winston to a third string quarterback role.

The Athletic's Browns, Cavaliers, and Guardians reporter Jason Lloyd revealed to 92.3 The Fan ahead of Week 8 that players didn't find out that Thompson-Robinson would be getting heavy reps for Week 7 or would be promoted for the game until Saturday - 24 hours before the contest. Thompson-Robinson, in fact, didn't even find out about his promotion until then, as well.

"Dorian didn't find out on Friday - it was later than Friday. I wrote after the game that players had walked through Saturday at the stadium, and when they go through their walkthrough they do the short yardage package. It was the short yardage package, and Deshaun came out during the short yardage package, and players are looking around going 'Okay, well this is new. Why are you out here?' Cause Jameis is usually the short yard quarterback. So they still didn't know as of Saturday," said Lloyd.

Lloyd added, "I had heard throughout the week they told Dorian to be ready, but they didn't actually tell Dorian he was gonna be the backup for a week."

It makes sense, then, that everyone just looked discombobulated during Thompson-Robinson's drives during Week 7 - they likely hadn't even known he'd be out there to backup Watson prior to the game. The fact that Watson then got hurt just added literal insult to injury for the team as they tried to work through the growing pains of a completely new signal caller in one game.

Lloyd also told Ken Carman and Anthony Lima on the show that he has struggled to see Stefanski look like a true, great coach with Cleveland this season, agreeing with the two hosts that Watson should have been benched much sooner and of course prior to him rupturing his Achilles.

“Kevin (Stefanski) looks totally broken this year. And this is a guy who just won Coach of the Year in January. He’s aged 25 years in six months,” expressed Lloyd.

Week 8's starter has already been announced - the honor will be Winston's moving forward as the team navigates life without Watson under center, and as the team now navigates a new play caller as Stefanski also stepped away from those duties to hand the reins over to OC Ken Dorsey.

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