The Cleveland Browns entered the 2023 season in an (sadly) very acquainted state of affairs.
Their 2022 season was a disappointment and much cry from the success the workforce loved in 2020 after they made the playoffs and received a playoff recreation for the primary time in virtually twenty years. The sense that the Browns had FINALLY gotten their act collectively and will really be a pressure to be reckoned with in January and February had all however eroded.
The Browns traded away Baker Mayfield, who many believed was the franchise savior at quarterback, and traded for Deshaun Watson contemporary off of 26 sexual assault allegations whereas additionally doling out a completely assured $230 million contract to verify he selected to return to Cleveland. After Watson served his 11-game suspension, the six video games he performed afterward had been inconsistent at finest and regarding at worst. The Browns protection was additionally clearly the least productive it had been below Stefanski, and the workforce completed the season 7-10 after ending 8-9 in 2021.
Stefanski entered the 2023 season on the prime of just about each “First NFL head coach to get fired” checklist you may discover on the web. Many predicted the Browns to have one other disappointing season and it felt just like the franchise would, as soon as once more, be searching for one other head coach to get this workforce to be persistently aggressive and to get essentially the most out of Deshaun Watson at quarterback.
Quick ahead to in the present day: The Cleveland Browns are 11-5, have clinched a playoff spot for the primary time since that unforgettable 2020 season, and lots of the similar individuals who had been predicting the workforce to have a disappointing season are calling the Browns Tremendous Bowl contenders.
Sure. You learn that proper. Individuals are calling THE CLEVELAND BROWNS Tremendous Bowl CONTENDERS.
On the forefront of this unbelievable turnaround the workforce has undergone is none aside from their head coach Kevin Stefanski. The job that he, and common supervisor Andrew Berry, have carried out remodeling this soccer workforce into one of the crucial formidable in the complete NFL is exceptional.
That is the primary Browns workforce since they returned to Cleveland in 1999 that completely refuses to ever hand over regardless of how a lot misfortune and adversity they encounter. It doesn’t matter who’s in or out of the lineup; this workforce is all the time ready to kick their opponent’s tooth in and infrequently does.
There’s a swagger, a perception, a typical of excellence that fairly frankly I’ve by no means seen a Browns workforce have in my lifetime. Not even the workforce in 2020 was doing what this present model of the Browns is doing each week. They’re resilient, relentless, bodily, assured and taking part in at an especially excessive stage.
There have been debates over who ought to win Coach of the Yr this season, however the reply is clear.
It’s Kevin Stefanski and it shouldn’t be shut.
The Browns are 11-5 they usually’ve completed this with Nick Chubb, Jack Conklin, Deshaun Watson, Jedrick Wills, Jakeem Grant, Dawand Jones, Jacob Phillips, Rodney McLeod, Maurice Hurst, Juan Thornhill and others lacking a number of video games, if not nearly all of the complete season.
He’s received video games with FOUR totally different beginning quarterbacks this season. He’s the one head coach in NFL historical past to win at the very least one recreation with 4 totally different quarterbacks in the identical season. From Deshaun Watson, to PJ Walker, to Dorian Thompson-Robinson and now to Joe Flacco, it hasn’t mattered. The Browns simply hold profitable regardless of who’s within the lineup, and Stefanski has the aforementioned Flacco taking part in so nicely that you’d suppose he’s with the Ravens once more.
No disrespect to Detriot Lions head coach Dan Campbell or Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans, each of whom have carried out phenomenal jobs main their soccer groups, however that is Stefanski’s award. No different head coach has overcome extra adversity and nonetheless managed to place his workforce ready to win each single week.
Whether or not or not Stefanski wins Coach of the Yr is considerably much less related to the well being of this franchise than preserving him round for the lengthy haul.
The entire questions folks had coming into this season about whether or not or not Stefanski was the appropriate coach to steer this workforce have been answered, and that reply is a convincing and simple HELL YES.
That is the man Browns followers have been ready for since 1999. Gone are the times of Hue Jackson and Freddie Kitchens. Not do you must abdomen a seemingly never-ending cycle of head coaches who had been clearly ill-equipped, unprepared and uninspiring. Head coaches who usually overpromised and extra usually underdelivered. There’s lastly a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel and the Cleveland Browns ought to race in direction of it and by no means look again.
The one factor the Browns have lacked because the workforce returned greater than twenty years in the past, which additionally occurs to be the one factor their division rivals within the Steelers and Ravens have had over the identical time, is stability. It’s unattainable for any franchise to construct, or maintain, success when it’s consistently biking teaching staffs and entrance places of work out and in each few years. Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry have confirmed that they’re each nice at what they do, and it’s time to reward each them and the followers who’ve stood by this franchise by all of the ups and (principally) downs.
It’s time for Jimmy Haslem to increase Kevin Stefanski for the following decade. Take away all doubt about who the chief of this workforce shall be. Deliver the steadiness that this franchise and fanbase have been eager for, so as a substitute of regularly worrying about who’s going to be compelled to depart Berea, Ohio, the fellows in cost can simply deal with constructing one thing particular and sustainable in Cleveland.
Kevin Stefanski has proven everybody they aren’t the identical previous Browns anymore.
It’s time for the Browns to maintain him round to allow them to present everybody it’s going to remain that means.