The Cleveland Browns have been in business since 1946. For the first 49 years, the organization had 10 head coaches. The franchise was put on hiatus for several years and then resumed in 1999. For the next 26 seasons, the Browns hired and fired 12 head coaches.

STEFANSKI HAS TEAMS LINED UP

The most recent was Kevin Stefanski, who was a Black Monday victim. What happened?

How did Cleveland owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam come to this conclusion? After all, he was named NFL Coach of the Year not once, but won this prestigious award twice in 2020 and also in 2023. He orchestrated the first playoff appearance by the Browns in 17 years, then won their first playoff game against the hated division foe, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With all of these accolades, why would the front office decide to give him walking papers after being with the team for six years? This organization is famous for hiring coaches and then letting them go after one or two years at the helm. And yet, here is a guy who gave the team much-needed stability.

The demise of Stefanski began last year.

In 2023, the Browns went 11-6-0 and captured the highest Wild Card seed, then got slammed by the Houston Texans in the first round of the postseason. Just three weeks prior, Cleveland dominated the Texans, taking home an easy 36-22 win in a contest that wasn’t that close. So, the playoff loss was not expected.

Having won 11 games and gone to the playoffs, Browns fans and the media were expecting this to continue and string along several years’ worth of postseason berths, you know, like the Marty Schottenheimer years.

Instead, the Browns went 3-14-0. In the season opener, they got taken to the woodshed by the Dallas Cowboys 33-17, who then finished their season 7-10-0 so it wasn’t like the beating came from a great team. At first, Cleveland lost four games by a touchdown or less. But as the season rolled along, they were getting beaten pretty regularly by scores like 34-13, 20-3, 35-14, 35-10, and 24-6.

The two bright spots were the 29-24 come-from-behind win over the Baltimore Ravens, plus the 24-19 win over the Steelers, both games at home. Each of these two teams was not only in the division but also ended up going to the playoffs.

Following a 14-loss season, that alone might cause an owner to send his head man packing. But the Haslams were patient. They said in the 2025 training camp, the roster looked like a winner. The Haslams had a press conference on July 31 after a practice. They haven’t gathered for the press since the April NFL draft, so there was a lot to cover.

Here are a few excerpts from that presser in regards to Stefanski:

Q: In terms of wins, what would be a successful season?

Jimmy: You really think we’re going to answer that? We’ve got to do better than three, okay? To put a number on it, I don’t think we will ever do that. Everybody – coaches, players, personnel, ownership, all know that 3-14 won’t cut it. We’ve got to do better. I think we’ll know what better looks like.

Q: People always talk about patience as an organizational value. What does that look like? What does patience look like?

Jimmy: Well, I think it’s, it’s what we’ve just talked about. We realized that we went 3-14. There was great uncertainty at quarterback. You probably weren’t going to go 14-3. So, let’s try to build the team the right way. And I’m repeating myself, and it’s premature, but I like the guys we picked. And time will tell how good they are. But Mason (Graham), Carson (Schwesinger), (Harold) Fannin Jr., Shedeur (Sanders), Dillon (Gabriel), etc. look like, Dylan Sampson, look like not only really good players, but really good people. And I’ll say this for the two quarterbacks coming in, and I know everybody has a vision of Shedeur (Sanders), but he’s come in, in the building, worked hard, kept his head down, and done what he’s supposed to do, as has Dillon (Gabriel), which was no surprise for either of them.

Q: How do you convince fans that to get your message across to them, this is a building process because you know how loyal they are and how frustrated they are?

Jimmy: Well, listen, we’re frustrated too. And we share the fans’ pain, okay? And we – Dee, says this all the time. We’re stewards of this franchise, and we need to do a better job. And we want to win for a lot of different reasons. The main reason we want to win is for our fans. They really do. We have great fans.

Q: With that type of philosophy, sort of a little bit of a patient attitude for this season. What does that mean for Kevin Stefanski? Because people are already asking if he’s on the hot seat.

Jimmy: Yeah, listen, you all, we talk to you all fairly frequently, and we’re very supportive of Kevin (Stefanski) and Andrew (Berry). Now, do they need to do better? Yeah, but so do Dee (Haslam) and I. You know what I mean? And these are high-pressure jobs they have, but we really like them in their roles as coach and GM, and we really like them as people. And I say this all the time. They’re 38 and 42 years old.

Q: How much has that patience approached, how much have you guys kind of talked about your history owning the team? Just how much have you kind of learned that?

Jimmy: I think we did a poor job early on, and hopefully we’re doing a better job now. And listen, we talk about it organizationally. This isn’t just ownership, but we talk about it — all Andrew’s (Berry) staff, all Kevin’s (Stefanski) staff, everybody is aware of the plan, and that’s how good teams work together.

Basically, the Haslams knew that the team would have to take its time in order to become an annual member of the postseason tournament. Dee or Jimmy never called it a “rebuild,” and from the roster standpoint, it did not appear that the roster needed to be purged. A few pieces here and there, and on paper, it looked like the team could compete. The recent NFL draft brought in some promising players in need positions.

And the Browns did – on defense.

Special teams fell apart, and the offense never got into any type of rhythm, which was Stefanski’s wheelhouse. To be fair, the Week 1 offensive line was supposed to be the catalyst to propel the offense. It was the same lineup that just two seasons ago was ranked #3 in the league, except for LT Jed Wills, who was substituted by Dawand Jones, who was viewed as an upgrade.

However, just like every other year, one guy would go down, followed by another. In Week 18, it was seven-time LG Joel Bitonio, two backups, and two practice squad guys starting along the offensive line for the Browns. In the finale against the Cincinnati Bengals, C Luke Wypler was injured, and Zak Zinter filled in. That meant the backup to the backup was inserted. Cleveland used seven different line combinations during this season.

Everyone knows this group must have stability and continuity to be successful. Real chemistry. Even the trades for OTs Cam Robinson and KT Leveston were total busts, as both players were viewed as liabilities instead of redeemers.

The quarterback situation is a running joke on late-night TV and Browns podcasts. In the past three seasons, the Browns have started 14 different QBs:

The Browns set three NFL records with the QB situation. First, they tied the 1987 New England Patriots by starting the most QBs in a single season with five. The second, they set a record for the most starting quarterbacks in two years, with nine. In 2025, Cleveland used a staggering 22 different starting quarterbacks, setting a new NFL record.

The offense was basically the cause of another double-digit loss season. And because this unit was supposed to be why they hired Stefanski in the first place, after losing 26 games in two seasons and the regression, the Haslams basically had no choice but to make a change.

Stefanski showed up as the offense’s play-caller, which he then gave up. The quarterback situation was always in flux, the offense finished this year ranked #30 in the league with the third fewest offensive touchdowns (30), and #31 in scoring offense (16.4).

The year before, the Browns’ offense ranked #28 overall, dead last in offensive touchdowns scored (29), and dead last in scoring offense (15.2). The Haslams believed this year’s team was capable of winning more games.

What led the Browns to move on from Stefanski?