3 moves left for the Cleveland Browns following the 2024 NFL Draft
By Randy Gurzi
2. Lock up the brain trust
Not long after the 2023 season ended, two potential extension were put on the table. Back in 2020, the Cleveland Browns hired head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry and they are each entering the final year of their contracts.
In their time together, the Browns have gone from a team with just two winning seasons from 1999 through 2019 to one with two winning seasons in the past four years. Stefanski is their only non-interim coach with a winning record since Cleveland returned to the NFL with a mark of 37-30 and has taken them to the playoffs twice.
This past season, he did so despite starting five different quarterbacks throughout the course of the year. That aided him in winning his second NFL Head Coach of the Year Award.
Berry has done a remarkable job as well, despite not hitting a home run with his largest gamble. In 2022, the GM swung for the fences in trading for Deshaun Watson, who has played in just 12 games thus far. Even without Watson — and a bevy of draft picks — Berry helped build a roster that sustained multiple injuries in 2024 yet still made it to the playoffs.
As is always the case, there's no such thing as universal approval for either the GM or the coach. There will continue to be those who criticize them but given how much they've accomplished in four seasons, the two should be kept around for the foreseeable future.