The Cleveland Browns did the easy part on Monday with the firing of head coach Kevin Stefanski after six years and two playoff appearances with the franchise.
The difficult part, and one that owners Jimmy
and Dee Haslam have repeatedly failed at with Rob Chudzinski, Hue Jackson, and Freddie Kitchens on their résumés, is to now find a head coach who can take the team forward.
One of the people tasked with making that a reality rather than just a pleasant fantasy will be general manager Andrew Berry, who will “immediately begin our thorough process to find an outstanding new head coach and leader of our football team,” according to the Haslams.
The Browns appear set on defense, with the NFL’s new sack leader in Myles Garrett, soon-to-be Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger, top cornerback Denzel Ward, and a solid nucleus of other core players. So that should be appealing to any potential head coach candidates.
What may need a bit of selling to the new guy is the offense, which is among the league’s worst, with an aging and injured offensive line that requires a complete rebuild, a wide receiver group that scares no one, and a quarterback situation that is as broken as it has ever been in the past 25 years.
But have no fear, Browns fans, because the team has a plan to fix that in the coming months, according to a statement from Berry that the team released:
“We will remain steadfast in our commitment to our fans in building the Browns into an organization that sustains success. Now, our attention turns to the search for the person to lead and develop what will be a young offense with heavy investment over the next six months to match and build on the performance of a young defense that is already playing at an elite level.”
It is too soon to know what Berry has planned for the offseason, but that “heavy investment” will be fueled by somewhere around $69 million in salary cap space, according to Jack Duffin at the Orange and Brown Report, and 10 selections in the 2026 NFL Draft, including a pair of selections in the first round.
Those combined assets should be enough to give Berry a good start on bringing the offense up to speed, especially if he can turn some of them into an actual NFL-caliber starting quarterback.
The easy part of the equation was solved this morning with the firing of Stefanski. The hard part starts now as the Browns look to hire a head coach and plan out how to rebuild and revive the offense.
