Now that Cleveland has officially moved on from Kevin Stefanski, they could choose to go about finding their next head coach in a variety of different ways. One specific thing that their new head man will absolutely, without a doubt, have to do is find a quarterback.
As Andrew Berry recently said, the team doesn’t know who their starting quarterback will be in 2026, whether they’re already in the organization or outside of it. It seems that whoever they hire as the next head coach will have to be determined
to find their ideal candidate almost immediately.
Based on this ideology, three of the most realistic options could be:
Kliff Kingsbury
Kingsbury is a coach who takes a no-nonsense approach to the offense. He knows the type of players he needs, especially at quarterback, and knows how to elevate them with an innovative, air-raid-esque scheme.
He’s also a coach who’s known to be aggressive when it comes to finding his guy at quarterback. His expertise from a passing game standpoint would also be a breath of fresh air for a Browns team that’s relied heavily on the run for almost a decade now. We’ve all seen what he recently did in Washington with Jayden Daniels, and it would be nice to see something like that play out in Cleveland.
Mike McCarthy
Similar to Kingsbury, McCarthy has a reputation around the league of being very specific about the quarterback position. He’s someone who usually won’t stop searching until he gets who he wants to lead the offense.
This is a completely different mindset from what Kevin Stefanski had, and it ultimately led to his demise in Cleveland, though he wasn’t the only one at fault.
McCarthy has a lot of fans and a lot of haters out there, but his ability to lead and be a winner is undeniable at the NFL level. Bringing in a veteran head coach with a winning past would also be something new in Northeast Ohio.
Matt Nagy
Nagy has shown the ability to be incredibly effective as an offensive playcaller, but he needs a legitimate quarterback to do so. He’s the type of offensive mind who wouldn’t be able to sleep until he has a quarterback that he knows can be successful in his offensive scheme.
Though it didn’t work out for him as a head coach in Chicago, he still went 34-31 in his four seasons there and won the NFL’s Coach of the Year Award in 2018. Nagy is still seen as an excellent offensive-minded coach, and there’s a reason that he’s been to so many Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator.
If Cleveland hires any one of these three coaches, I truly believe that the Browns will have their next legitimate quarterback within their first two years with the organization.
Who are some of your top options at Head Coach for Cleveland? Join fellow Browns fans in the comment section below.
