The Cleveland Browns have been around since 1946. Take the three years the team moved to Baltimore before the reinstatement and that's still nearly 80 years of history. Throughout the course of that time, they've only had 18 non-interim head coaches.
That's an average of 4.2 years per head coach, which is much more than what most coaches live to see in today's National Football League. Even Kevin Stefanski was in Cleveland for five years before finally being shown the door.
That's why The Athletic's latest shot at the organization feels uncalled-for and narrative-driven. The site included the Browns as an honorable mention in an article about the hardest coaching jobs in the sports world, and it doesn't truly add up.
"Cleveland have repeatedly failed in their attempts to find the right quarterback. Since the Browns returned to the NFL in 1999, they've had 42 starting quarterbacks — by far the most of any team in that time," the post read. "The constant carousel at quarterback and in the head coach’s office has not helped anyone. Add in an aggressive but meddling ownership group and a pile of immature draft picks and the Browns warrant a spot here."
Browns inclusion on infamous list says more than intended
Granted, Jimmy Haslam's influence and Andrew Berry's micromanaging presence will represent a major challenge for head coach Todd Monken and anybody who may come after him. But including this team in the same list with the likes of the New York Yankees, Real Madrid, or Brazil's national soccer team just feels like a reach.
The Browns are clearly not a Super Bowl contender right now. They need to fix their quarterback situation. That said, they're in a much better position than the naysayers realize.
This team will finally get a clean slate from Deshaun Watson's mammoth deal in 2027. They had the best rookie class in the league in 2025 and have 10 draft picks in 2026, including two in the first round. They also have an offensive-minded coach who's turned every offense he's had into gold, and a championship-caliber defense.
It's hard to change the narrative after so many years of shortcomings and all those swings and misses at quarterback. Still, most of the time, it feels like these takes come from people who haven't even watched the Browns play.
It's hard to blame them, given the record and the fact that they're definitely not in the biggest sports market out there. Still, that doesn't excuse people from making uneducated guesses and taking petty shots at an organization they're not that familiar with.