As expected, the Cleveland Browns’ decision to cut ties with head coach Kevin Stefanski was met with eye rolls throughout the NFL world, as "only the Browns" would kick a two-time Coach of the Year to the curb over a rough two-year stretch that’s not all his fault.
Browns fans have gotten a nice reprieve, however, since news broke of the Baltimore Ravens parting with John Harbaugh — who brought that team a Super Bowl and made the playoffs in 12 of his 18 seasons there.
Like any marquee firing, there’s already some damage control filtering out on both sides. Before the decision was even announced, Pete Prisco of CBS Sports let it be known that Stefanski never wanted Deshaun Watson, a conveniently timed piece of reporting on a quarterback who cost three first-round picks, $230 million fully guaranteed, and completely torpedoed the franchise is less than four years time.
The final straw for owner Jimmy Haslam of the Browns? It wasn’t Watson, who Haslam has publicly put on his own plate (and rightfully so). It wasn’t Shedeur Sanders, who showed clear development under Stefanski over Cleveland’s final seven games of the year.
No, the quarterback who ultimately drove Stefanski out of town was, reportedly, the wily veteran who helped save the Browns’ season — and land Stefanski a contract extension — following the 2023 season.
Browns leadership had a hard time watching Joe Flacco shine in Cincinnati this year, NFL insider says
Two things can be true: Stefanski was a good coach for the Browns over the balance of his six-year tenure, and also was deserving of his fate on Black Monday, coming off a brutal stretch of eight wins in 34 games.
That 8-26 record since the start of 2024 is what ultimately did Stefanski in, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, but the insider revealed another interesting nugget that might’ve been the proverbial final straw.
According to Rapoport, Flacco’s four ugly starts for the Browns this season, and sudden resurgence with Cincinnati following the October trade that sent him there, did not play well with owner Jimmy Haslam and Browns leadership.
“The last two years were not good, and there were several examples,” Rapoport said. “First of all, the record is what it is. There’s also some other things, Kevin Stefanski removing himself as play caller a couple of different times… one last year, one this year; that is not a great thing, especially when success didn’t really follow that. We also saw Joe Flacco get traded, go to the Cincinnati Bengals, and get better. That also did not help. Simply needed a new voice, give a new try to someone to help make this franchise successful as it was a couple years ago.”
From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: The #Browns needed a new voice, and that new voice has some important decisions coming with a quick turnaround being possible. pic.twitter.com/upnAdMbAte
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 6, 2026
It’s easy to pick apart the logic around Flacco. It only took one game this season for the Browns to start mixing and matching along their offensive line, due to injuries (and poor planning), and Flacco wasn’t exactly throwing to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins out there; he was unable to recapture the magic with Jerry Jeudy (a story of Cleveland’s season), and his obvious best option in the passing game was third-round rookie Harold Fannin.
Stefanski definitely deserves a pass for the Watson fiasco, but after keeping the ship afloat in 2023 and leading the Browns to a playoff berth, the wheels came off over these past two years, with the Browns shuffling through Watson, Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Bailey Zappe, Flacco, Dillon Gabriel and, finally, Shedeur Sanders.
In the end, it was obviously the right time for both parties to move on. It's definitely quite the twist of fate, though, that the QB most responsible for Stefanski’s contract extension in the summer of 2024, wound up influencing his ouster in the winter of 2026.