Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam recently voiced his support for head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry, but Haslam stopped short of guaranteeing the two will hold onto their jobs with the Browns at 3-10 in the closing weeks of a lost season for the organization.
During the latest edition of the “Scoop City” podcast, NFL insider Dianna Russini of The Athletic offered an update on the futures of Stefanski and Berry.
“I talked to some people in Cleveland, and they tell me that Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski are going to be safe — they are going to come back next year,” Russini said, as shared by Bleacher Report’s Jack Murray. “I think they realize that the problem that they’re having has more to do with the quarterback than it does with Kevin Stefanski.”
Russini was referencing how Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson was arguably the league’s worst starting quarterback of the season’s first six weeks before he suffered a ruptured Achilles on Oct. 20. According to ESPN stats, Watson enters this weekend ranked last in the NFL among qualified players with a 22.9 adjusted QBR for the campaign. He recorded five touchdown passes with three interceptions across fewer than seven full games.
While Stefanski is a two-time Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award winner who has guided the Browns to a pair of playoff appearances since the start of the 2020 season, he and Berry will forever be married to the club giving Watson a fully guaranteed five-year, $230M contract as part of acquiring the signal-caller from the Houston Texans in March 2022. Since the completion of that trade, Watson has made just 19 regular-season starts for Cleveland. He required surgery to repair an injury to his throwing shoulder last fall.
Haslam said this week that “we will look at everything” during the upcoming offseason regarding Cleveland’s quarterback options, but most believe the club will be stuck with what’s left of Watson’s deal through at least the end of the 2025 campaign. The Browns are expected to have Watson compete for the starting job whenever he’s cleared to practice next summer, and it appears the Stefanski-Berry regime will be tasked with once again filling the team’s quarterback room.
