For any and all potential NFL coaching changes, no one truly knows what’s going to happen until it does.
In Cleveland, the current vibe in the building is that coach Kevin Stefanski’s tenure will end, after Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Bengals.
Stefanski, a Vikings assistant from 2006 through 2019, got the job in Cleveland in 2020. In six seasons, he won the coach of the year award twice, in each of the two seasons the Browns made the playoffs. Which happened because, frankly. no one ever expects the Browns to make the playoffs.
No one expected them to make the playoffs this year. Which makes it odd that the Browns would make a change. What did ownership expect from Stefanski, as the organization continues to deal with the fallout of the Deshaun Watson trade and contract — the single worst transaction in NFL history? Stefanski has done his best to make chicken salad with the ingredients ownership and the front office have given him.
Stefanski has a record of 44-56 in the regular season, and 1-2 in the postseason. Given the overall quality of the roster during his tenure with the team, that’s not a horrible performance.
Buy, hey, dysfunctional teams will always do dysfunctional things.
For the Browns, the question becomes who they’ll hire. And whether anyone with viable options will opt to become the Browns’ next head coach.
For Stefanski, the next question becomes whether he lands on his feet immediately, not as a coordinator but as a head coach. We’ve already caught wind of one team that would potentially view him as a viable option, if that team makes a change.
