Heading into his fourth season as an NFL head coach, the jury is still out on Kevin Stefanski. His tenure with the Cleveland Browns has had many highs and lows.
For the first time in his young head coaching career, he seemingly has a quarterback that could be franchise-altering, as well as a very talented roster. At least on paper.
Stefanski heads into the 2023 season with a career record of 26-24, which gives him the best mark for a Browns' head coach since the return of the franchise in 1999. Many will scoff at that record, mostly fans who overvalued players who previously played for this beloved franchise and thought the team should've done better.
In his first season at the helm, he led the Browns to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years, which helped him earn the NFL Coach of the Year honors. Unfortunately, the Browns have had back-to-back losing seasons and fans get too impatient.
No matter what point the season is at, fans will bring out the pitchforks for Stefanski at the drop of the smallest inconvenience. It's hilarious that there's a notion that when the Browns win, it's more so the players, but if they lose, it falls on Stefanski, fair or not.
For those believing that the 2022 season was any true barometer on whether or not Stefanski is the right man to lead this team, it should be noted that last season was never designed to be a magical playoff run. Stefanski did a hell of a job with Jacoby Brissett, but that was never going to be a realistic thing.
The seat in which Stefanski sits should not be hot and shouldn't even be warm unless this season goes catastrophically horrible and the Browns fail to put out a winning team.
The Chips are All In for 2023 and Beyond
As aforementioned, Stefanski enters the 2023 season with a true franchise quarterback in Deshaun Watson. When the team made the trade last March and subsequently gave him a massive guaranteed contract, it was never about the 2022 season.
Now, with all of his off-the-field issues at rest, Stefanski and his quarterback have had a full offseason to get on the same page and work out the kinks from a six-game span to the end of last season.
Watson has looked good throughout camp and has been spreading the ball all over the field to the likes of Amari Cooper, Elijah Moore, Donovan Peoples-Jones, and David Njoku. If Watson is able to get remotely close to his former self, this offense will be a problem to deal with.
His teammates even voted for him to be one of the captains this season, which some fans thought was a bit concerning, but Stefanski said that the decision made sense as it is "very natural for him to lead."
Oh, and Cleveland boasts one of the best offensive lines blocking for arguably the best overall running back in the NFL in Nick Chubb.
Speaking of Chubb, get ready for the fans to yell into the abyss how he should be getting 20 touches per game, regardless of how the game is playing out. Stefanski had a hilarious response to this earlier in the offseason [jokingly] saying they should just start the game with 24 straight Chubb runs.
The defense got an overhaul this offseason as Jim Schwartz is the new defensive coordinator and general manager Andrew Berry was busy bolstering that side of the football with acquisitions of Dalvin Tomlinson, Za'Darius Smith, and Juan Thornhill, among many others.
This season has potential to be a fun one on the shores of Lake Erie, and the chips are pushed all the way in.
Browns Must Win the Close Games
When it came to one-score games last year, Cleveland was the second-worst team in the NFL with a record of 2-6. Only the Chicago Bears, who finished with the worst record in the league, were below the Browns at 1-7.
If the Browns want to vie for a playoff berth this season, they must reverse their fortunes in one-score affairs, especially in the daunting AFC.
Stefanski was on the losing end more times than he'd like to remember when the score was close. Oftentimes, the offense did its job and the defense collapsed down the stretch. With the defense vastly improved (on paper), that shouldn't be an issue anymore.
Kicking matters in the NFL and Cleveland recently got a new kicker as they replaced Cade York with veteran Dustin Hopkins, who was acquired in a trade with the Chargers for a seventh-round pick.
This should also change some outcomes for the Browns as they now have a guy who has converted 84.8 percent of his field goals and 94.4 percent of his extra points.
Should the Browns not turn it around in this area of the game, then that won't fall solely on Stefanski. In the NFL, it all comes down to execution. If a play looks like it works and let's say a receiver drops a wide-open pass, that doesn't fall on the head coach.
There are so many nuances to every single game played and some things just aren't due to the head coach calling plays or picking the play you thought he should've called sitting in your recliner.
Stefanski will get a full season with this roster to prove he can be the man to lead this team to the promised land. Even if the Browns start off slowly, that still won't be time to panic or even warm Stefanski's seat.
Despite all the excitement of the new players on the team, it will still take a little time for them to fully gel. The team has looked pretty good in the offseason, but that doesn't matter come September 10.
If Cleveland is able to get back to the postseason for the first time in three years, fans will have a different outlook on Stefanski. He has the talent (on paper) for this to be a truly special season.
If the Browns fail to live up to expectations, then all hell will break lose, Until that happens, Stefanski should not be on the hot seat or even the warm seat in 2023.