Every Cleveland Browns head coach ever: Full list

The Cleveland Browns have a rich history in the world of football and have also had one of the best head coaches of all time leading the charge for them in Paul Brown. Brown is the most notable head coach in Browns' history but Blanton Collier, Marty Schottenheimer, and Kevin Stefanski also deserve credit.

Unfortunately, the Browns also have their fair share of terrible head coaches. We'll look over every single head coach in franchise history and discuss what each of them did while patrolling the sidelines in Cleveland.

Every Cleveland Browns head coach in team history

Paul Brown

The first-ever head coach in Cleveland Browns history was Paul Brown, who led the franchise to four AAFC titles in his first four years. The Browns won the NFL Championship in 1950, giving Brown five championships in five years on the job, including a perfect 14-0 season in 1948. Brown added two more titles to his résume in 1954 and 1955, giving him seven total championships. He's still considered the best head coach in Cleveland Browns history.

Blanton Collier

After Paul Brown was fired following the 1962 season, Blanton Collier was hired as the second-ever head coach of the Cleveland Browns. What followed was another legendary run, as Collier led the Browns to an NFL Championship in 1964, which was just his second year on the job. He retired from coaching following the 1970 season.

Nick Skorich

Before he was hired by the Browns, Nick Skorich had served as an assistant and as offensive coordinator for the team. He became the third head coach in franchise history in 1971 following Blanton Collier's retirement.

While the Browns had winning records in Skorich's first three seasons on the job, a lot of the big stars had retired and the team was starting to look different. In his last season, the team finished at the bottom of the division for the first time in franchise history and it was time for both sides to move on.

Forrest Gregg

Forrest Gregg served as the offensive line coach in 1974 and was promoted to head coach in 1975. The Browns had only one winning season during Gregg's tenure in Cleveland and he was relieved of his duties with one game remaining in the 1977 season. Gregg went on to take over as the Bengals head coach in 1980 and helped lead them to a Super Bowl appearance in the 1981 season so he was a good coach, just not with the Browns.

Dick Modzelewski

With Forrest Gregg canned before the 1977 season was over, the Browns had to find an interim head coach for that final game and promoted defensive coordinator Dick Modzelewski to the position. Cleveland lost the one game he served as the interim head coach and continued to be a defensive coordinator for the Giants and the Packers over the next decade following his stint with the Browns.

Sam Rutigliano

In 1978, the Browns hired Sam Rutigliano, who had previously been serving as the wide receivers coach for the Saints. In his first year at the helm in Cleveland, he led Cleveland to an 8-8 record, a huge step up from their 6-8 campaign the previous year.

By his third season, Rutigliano had the Browns in the playoffs after an 11-5 season. Unfortunately, that's about where the hype stopped. The Browns made the postseason one other time in the Rutigliano era but after a 1-7 start in 1984, Rutigliano was kicked to the curb.

Marty Schottenheimer

Marty Schottenheimer had been the Browns defensive coordinator since 1980 and had taken over as interim head coach in 1984, leading Cleveland to a 4-4 record. He was hired as the head coach for the 1985 season and the Browns never had a losing season under him. They made it to the postseason in all but one year and the one season they didn't was when he took over for Rutigliano.

Schottenheimer ultimately left the organization following the 1988 campaign due to disagreements with owner Art Modell. He joined the Chiefs in 1989 and went on to coach them for nine years, then Washington for a year, and the Chargers for five years. He proved to be a great coach and is still one of the best the Browns have ever had.

Bud Carson

Bud Carson was an example of someone being a great coordinator but not a great head coach. He was hired to lead the team following Marty Schottenheimer's departure and the roster was still in great, which led to a 9-6 record and a trip to the AFC Championship Game. The Browns fell to the Broncos in that game and the next season was a disaster for Carson and he was fired after a 2-7 start to the season.

Jim Shofner

Following the firing of Bud Carson, Jim Shofner was named the interim head coach and didn't fare much better in the role. The Browns only won one game under Shofner, who had previously served as the quarterbacks coach with the organization in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The team opted not to move forward with him as the head coach.

Bill Belichick

Once upon a time, Bill Belichick was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Under Belichick's tutelage, the Browns made the playoffs one time in five seasons and won one playoff game (which, funny enough, came against the Patriots). Unfortunately, the Browns ended up moving to Baltimore following the 1995 season and Art Modell opted not to have Belichick coach the newly named Baltimore Ravens. The rest is history.

Chris Palmer

The first-ever coach for the newly-reborn Cleveland Browns was Chris Palmer, who had success with the Patriots as the quarterbacks coach in 1996. Unfortunately, he did not have that same kind of success during his Browns coaching stint, leading the team to just five wins in two seasons.

Butch Davis

The Browns were able to pry Butch Davis away from the University of Miami and he served as their head coach for four years. Davis did not inherit a good team whatsoever but in his first year, he turned the Browns around, as they won seven games. In his second year at the helm, they won nine games and made their first playoff appearance for the first time since the team returned to Cleveland.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Davis and the Browns posted back-to-back losing seasons in 2003 and 2004 and he ultimately resigned following a disappointing 2004 campaign. For nearly two decades, however, Davis was the only head coach who had led the reborn Browns to a playoff appearance.

Terry Robiskie

With Butch Davis resigning before the end of the 2004 season, the Browns had to find an interim head coach and they went with Terry Robiskie, who had been the wide receivers coach since 2001. He was not able to change the tides in Cleveland, as the franchise won just one game under Robiskie.

Romeo Crennel

The Browns hired Romeo Crennel to be their head coach in 2005 and the team had been familiar with him before that. He was the defensive coordinator in 2000 before spending four years in the same role with the Patriots (and winning three Super Bowls).

Crennel coached the Browns for four years and posted one winning season, which came in 2007. The Browns had 10 wins that year but that wasn't good enough for them to make the playoffs. Crennel was fired after Cleveland regressed in 2008.

Eric Mangini

In 2009, Cleveland hired Eric Mangini to be their fifth head coach in the reborn Browns era. Mangini had experience as a defensive coordinator with the Patriots and as the head coach of the Jets. He had two winning seasons during his Jets tenure, which is what led the Browns to bring him in. Unfortunately, that success didn't carry over, as the Browns won just 10 games in two seasons under his guidance.

Pat Shurmur

The next head coach of the Browns was Pat Shurmur, who impressed people with what he did as the offensive coordinator for the Rams in 2010. Sam Bradford had an impressive rookie season that year and it made Shurmur a popular head coaching candidate. The Browns hired him and, as you know, it didn't go well for either side.

Shurmur won even fewer games than his predecessor did, with just nine wins under his belt. He was allowed to finish out a disappointing 2012 season but was fired shortly after the season concluded. Shurmur was given another shot as a head coach by the Giants in 2018 and 2019 and didn't fare much better there, posting the exact same record he did in Cleveland.

Rob Chudzinski

The Browns went for the hot offensive coordinator candidate once again, hiring Rob Chudzinski to be their next head coach. Chudzinski had turned around a terrible Panthers offense and that's what made him an appealing head coach candidate to Cleveland.

Well, as you probably predicted, it didn't go well. Chudzinksi only won four games and was fired at the end of the year. The Browns didn't bother giving him more than one season and he was never given the chance to be a head coach anywhere else.

Mike Pettine

The Browns shifted focus with their next head coach hire by going with the defensive-minded Mike Pettine, who was the Jets defensive coordinator from 2009 to 2012 and then the Bills defensive coordinator in 2013. It looked like the Browns had made the correct hire early on, as Pettine had the team sitting with a 7-4 record at the halfway mark.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. The Browns finished that season losing their final five games to close out the 2014 season with a 7-9 record. It was still the best year the team had put together since 2007. The next year, however, Pettine's Browns regressed, finishing the 2015 season with a lackluster 3-13 record, their worst showing since 2000. It came as no surprise when Pettine was fired after just two years at the helm.

Hue Jackson

The Browns hired Hue Jackson in 2018, prying him away from division rival Cincinnati where he had served as their offensive coordinator for two years before coming to Cleveland. The Hue Jackson experiment did not go well, as the Browns won just one game during his first year on the job (and it didn't come until late in the season) and went 0-16 in his second year leading the team.

It's baffling why Jackson was given a third year when the coaches before him were fired despite having better records than him but the Browns gave him a chance hoping that "third time's a charm" would pan out. That didn't happen and after Jackson led Cleveland to a 2-5-1 record near the halfway mark of the season, he was finally canned. He won just three games during his Cleveland tenure and never won a road game.

Gregg Williams

After Hue Jackson was canned midway through the 2018 season, Gregg Williams was named the interim head coach. Williams was the team's defensive coordinator in 2017 and 2018 and did nice things for the Browns as the head coach, leading them to a 5-3 record. He showed enough potential that some might have thought he deserved a shot as the head coach but the Browns went in a different direction.

Freddie Kitchens

The Browns passed on hiring Gregg Williams to be the head coach in 2019, instead opting to hire Freddie Kitchens, who was the offensive coordinator in 2018. Kitchens was praised for what he was able to do with Baker Mayfield during his rookie year in 2018, which helped get him the job for the 2019 season.

That offseason saw the Browns getting a ton of hype but Kitchens' crew ultimately fell way short of the expectations placed on them, winning only six games. He was fired after the Browns' final game of the year.

Kevin Stefanski

Cleveland stuck with an offensive-minded coach for their next hire, bringing in Kevin Stefanski, who was the Vikings offensive coordinator in 2019. Stefanski immediately turned things around in Cleveland, leading the Browns to double-digit wins for the first time since 2007 and their first playoff appearance since 2002. He won Coach of the Year in 2020 for turning a hapless Browns team into a playoff contender in Year 1.

While the Browns had losing records in 2021 and 2022, those teams were nowhere near as bad as the ones fans had grown accustomed to watching over the past decade. Stefanski got the Browns back to their winning ways in 2023, as the team finished with 11 wins and made the playoffs once again. He's the first Browns coach to lead them to multiple playoff appearances since Marty Schottenheimer.

After years of searching for a new head coach time and time again, it appears that the Browns have finally found a keeper.

More Browns coverage