A lot of people around town, including folks who cover the team are upset with the Cleveland Browns’ choice of former Minnesota offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski as the new head coach.
Look, regardless of who you wanted to be the coach, it isn’t fair to condemn the pick until Stefanski coaches a few games that count this fall.
Successful head coaches come from all different backgrounds. John Harbaugh was a special teams coach, Andy Reid was an offensive coordinator, Bill Belichick, of course, a defensive coordinator.
Some were hot candidates at the time, others weren’t. The point is you don’t know what you have in a head coach until he’s thrown into the fire and he actually does it.
We understand that’s not what people want to hear, but it’s the truth.
There is no correlation between Super Bowl rings as an assistant to being a successful head coach, nor does success as a coordinator.
We do know than in Stefanski’s only year (2019) as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator, Minnesota ranked 4th in rushing attempts, and 30th in passing attempts. Since the Browns’ best offensive player is Nick Chubb, that seems to be a good fit.
We would also think it means the Browns will try to keep Kareem Hunt too, giving them the best tandem at the position in the NFL.
It sounds simple and trite, but if Stefanski runs an offense suited to the strengths of Baker Mayfield, and hires a defensive coordinator who can design a scheme to stop the run, it says here the Cleveland Browns will have success next season.
Yes, they could use a couple offensive linemen, a linebacker or two, and some safeties, but it isn’t like the team is devoid of talent, and that differs from past coaching hires.
The front office wants “alignment”, meaning everyone is on the same page, so hopefully, the new offensive coordinator is someone who has the same principles as Stefanski, which would be completely different from the 2019 edition of the team.
That doesn’t mean we think all is warm and fuzzy with the hiring process.
It was reported that the coach will be expected to run game plans through the analytic department, which is not troublesome.
We understand the word “analytics” scares some football people, but it is simply checking tendencies and tracking success. Perhaps if Freddie Kitchens listened this past season, he would have used more one running back, two tight end sets, which the Browns were successful with.
However, we cringe at the weekly meetings the day after the game with the owner. A smart man knows what he doesn’t know, and we would bet it won’t be long before Stefanski will tire of this process.
A better solution would be to have Paul DePodesta, whoever is the new general manager, and the coach sit down to discuss any points of importance and have DePodesta explain things to the ownership.
That keeps the alignment intact. No chance for Jimmy Haslam to get friendly with Stefanski and decide the coach is the “guy” and then get rid of the other two.
The pre-1999 owner would do the same thing. Fall in love with a coach. That’s why Ernie Accorsi left the organization.
Let’s give Kevin Stefanski a chance. Don’t let preconceived notions get in the way of evaluating him. Doing so as a fan is no difference than the impetuousness of the man who owns the team.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 