After six years together, the Cleveland Browns have officially fired Kevin Stefanski and will be searching for a new head coach for the first time since 2020. While Stefanski brought early success to Cleveland that Browns fans hadn't experienced in a long time, the past two years proved that it was time to move on and go in a different direction.
When asked why the Browns ultimately made the decision to fire Stefanski, NFL insider Albert Breer painted a pretty clear picture. To the surprise of no one, Breer said that the Deshaun Watson trade played a huge role in sealing Stefanski's fate.
"I just think, like, the inability to really take the next step was part of it... And how that all tied to a single move. I mean, you think about the damage done by the Deshaun Watson trade, right?" Breer said on The Dan Patrick Show. "It kicks your kicks out your ability to draft because you lose three first round picks. It kills your salary cap and that keeps you from doing anything else, at least for a short period of time to fix the quarterback position. And so I think there's an acknowledgement in the building that everybody had their hands tied behind their backs because of the trade and everybody's got blood on their hands because of it. I just think because of all that history that they had had been through and that that Kevin had been through with the players, you know, it seems to me like Jimmy [Haslam] just made this decision."
Kevin Stefanski became the fall guy for a Browns mistake they can’t escape
It's no secret just how bad the Watson trade has been for the Browns and how much it's royally screwed them for years to come. Stefanski might not have been the driving force in bringing Watson to Cleveland, but he was the head coach when it happened and wasn't able to make it work or overcome Watson's shortcomings. Watson was downright dreadful as the quarterback of the Browns, and it wasn't a contract the team was able to get out of, making it difficult to find another suitable signal caller.
Even with Watson not playing a snap since the 2024 season, Stefanski wasn't able to work his magic and find a quarterback that could stick around and help the team. While Stefanski showed he could lead other quarterbacks to success (Joe Flacco in 2023, for instance), after two painfully bad seasons and the quarterback issue still not resolved, he ran out of chances to keep trying.
That's not all on Stefanski, of course, but he is going to shoulder a fair share of the blame and we saw what happened as a result. He lost his job and will be searching for a new one this offseason.