Winning two Coach of the Year awards in Cleveland still couldn’t save Kevin Stefanski.
The Browns fired Stefanski on Monday after a 5-12 campaign in 2025, which dropped the franchise to 8-26 (3-14 in 2024) over the last two years.
While Stefanski led the team to playoff appearances in his inaugural season in 2020 and then again in 2023, in addition to beating the Steelers in the wild-card round that first season, the franchise finished below .500 in four of his six years — and especially struggled these last two years.
His exit continues the coaching carousel by Lake Erie, with the franchise continuing to search for a coach and quarterback combination that can build a sustained winner.
Stefanski seemed like he may be that guy early in his career, but like most Cleveland coaches, the franchise’s poor quarterback play did him in.
In a cruel twist, it’s the disastrous 2022 trade for Deshaun Watson that set the franchise back and led Stefanski down a path that had too many hurdles.
Watson, who signed a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract after the trade, made just 19 starts for the franchise before suffering a potentially career-ending Achilles tear last year and then re-tearing it again this year,.
Stefanski managed to guide the Browns to a 7-10 record in 2022 and Joe Flacco led an unexpected playoff run in an 11-6 campaign in 2023, but the last two years have been horrendous.
Cleveland went 3-14 last year with Watson and Jameis Winston, and this year’s rotation crew of Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders has not helped the cause.
Stefanski enjoyed his most success in his first two years when he paired with Baker Mayfield.
The Browns went 11-5 in 2020 before defeating the Steelers, 48-37, for their first playoff win in 26 seasons.
They ultimately fell to the Chiefs, 22-17, in the divisional round.
Cleveland slipped to 8-9 the next year and missed the playoffs, but that still represented an upgrade from most of the franchise’s recent seasons.
Stefanski, who came to the franchise after serving as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator, finished with a 44-56 record and a 1-2 mark in the playoffs.
