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BEREA, Ohio — On the sidelines, Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski is rarely seen displaying emotion.
On Sunday’s pivotal play in the team’s 31-27 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland’s normally composed coach lost control.
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Defying the Jaguars’ rush, Browns QB Joe Flacco found second-year wide receiver David Bell wide open down the middle on a crucial fourth-and-3 play early in the fourth quarter.
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Stefanski skipped along the sidelines, joining the players in yelling as Bell whirled around and raced untouched for his first career 41-yard touchdown.
“That particular play was a big moment for our football team in that game,” Stefanski stated on Wednesday. “And to see the play that (Flacco) made drifting away from pressure and then to see D-Bell obviously go in. … I feed off the emotion of our players — and that was an emotional play for our football team.”
a football squad that wins games after losing players on a regular basis.
Since the Houston Texans in 2015, the Browns are the first NFL team to start four different quarterbacks in a single season.
A number of other standout players for Cleveland have also suffered season-ending injuries: All-Pro running back Nick Chubb (knee), quarterback Deshaun Watson (shoulder), starting offensive tackles Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin (knee), backup tackle Dawand Jones (knee), and most recently, defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo (groin) and safety Grant Delpit (groin), both of whom were hurt in the team’s victory over Jacksonville.
Despite the Browns’ struggles with injuries and quarterback turnover, Stefanski manages to have the team at 8-5 and the 5th seed in the AFC playoffs.
“He’s coaching his ass off,” defensive end Myles Garrett of the Browns said.
To put the Browns in serious playoff contention, Stefanski has managed to navigate a slew of season-ending injuries and play four different quarterbacks. Nick Cammett/Getty Images photo
After two consecutive losing seasons, Stefanski seemed to be in the running for one of the league’s best coaching jobs going into the 2023 season.
In 2020, Stefanski won NFL Coach of the Year after leading the Browns to their first postseason appearance in 18 years during his rookie season.
However, the Browns have struggled to qualify for the postseason the last two seasons due to quarterback turbulence. First, it was Baker Mayfield in 2021, and then it was Watson, who missed the first 11 games due to a ban he received for breaking the NFL’s personal conduct rules the previous season.
With the way the Browns have recovered this year, Stefanski doesn’t seem to be in the firing line anymore.
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In fact, he may be a contender for NFL Coach of the Year once more going into the last month of the campaign. In the offseason, he might also be headed for a contract extension.
“He does a great job and I think he deserves a lot of credit, obviously, with the amount of variables that he’s been dealing with this year,” said Flacco. “He’s the first guy you’re going to have to look at when you talk about that kind of stuff.”
Stefanski has faced more quarterback-specific factors than any other NFL coach.
Watson was dealing with two separate ailments to his throwing shoulder, so freshman quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and quarterback PJ Walker had to play almost three full games each. Despite this, Cleveland managed to win 3-3 in those games to maintain their postseason aspirations. This included victories over the San Francisco 49ers (19–17) and the Indianapolis Colts (39–38) in Week 7, both of which came about thanks to Walker at the center. Later, the team defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers (13–10), with Thompson–Robinson executing the game-winning field goal drive.
In addition, Stefanski calls the attacking plays. In none of those wins, the Browns lit up the scoreboard with him calling the plays. They did, however, generate enough offensive to win.
Andrew Berry, general manager, describes Stefanski as having three superpowers. “His intelligence, his creativity and his emotional control.”
Cleveland has been able to weather the injury storm and avoid any panic in the locker room thanks to Stefanski’s attitude. He and Flacco, 38, clicked right away, and that connection might carry the Browns all the way to the postseason.
On November 20, after Watson was scheduled to have shoulder surgery that would terminate the season, Cleveland signed Flacco. In his season debut on December 3, Flacco passed for three touchdowns, but the Los Angeles Rams prevailed in the end.
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Following the 1970 merger, Flacco’s performance versus Jacksonville made him one of just five quarterbacks in NFL history to throw five touchdowns in his first two games as a new player. And the Browns made history by being the eighth team to have four different quarterbacks win a game in a single season since at least 1950.
Flacco, who is just three years younger than Stefanski, stated, “The more he learns what we’re good at while I’m back there and the more we can talk in the meeting rooms, obviously, the more I play, the more conversations…. the better feel [we’ll have] for each other that way.”
Twelve head coaches have come and gone with the Browns since they returned to the NFL in 1999. None of the team’s coaches have lasted more than three seasons since Jimmy and Dee Haslam acquired the team in 2012. Up until Stefanski, who is en route to ending that shameful trend and providing the Browns with the successful coach they have always desired.
“With everything that’s changed throughout the year, pieces moving in and out, switched around, he’s done a hell of a job,” Garrett stated, “and we’ve answered the call.”
