The Ride Is Just Beginning
Sunday was a missed opportunity, but this is just the start of something great
The Browns were an active participant on Sunday in one of the wildest NFL games I’ve seen, eventually losing 47–42 to the hated Baltimore Ravens. It marked the seventh time this season that the Browns have scored 30+ points in a game, That’s two more times than the last five seasons *combined*.
It is easy to look at Sunday and see a missed opportunity, because it was. It’s easy to look at this Browns team and see something special, because it is. But this team is not at its final destination. This team is just getting started. They are showing that they can hang with the contenders. I have spoken before about the odd fact that extended failure has made us less patient, not more.
I’m sure those in Berea knew better than us what this team was going to be capable of under Kevin Stefanski. I’m also sure there are people in Berea surprised at the speed at which the Browns have become a legitimate playoff contender. Last year was such a mess that moderate success and functional alignment would have been seen as a good season. Regardless, this isn’t the time to push all the chips into the middle of the table. That time is coming, but it’s not now.
We don’t need to snatch at this team. They’re going to be here for a while. The defense may have been bad so far this year and will be bad for the rest of it. They could have strengthened at the deadline, but they didn’t. Draft picks are how teams get good and how teams stay good. They aren’t trading for anyone they don’t think can be a long term contributor. This isn’t about today.
This team is not yet where they want it to be, and where it needs to be, but crucial pieces are in place. So often, we see young teams saddled with the wrong coach. Sometimes they break free, and sometimes they don’t. Missing on a coach can be as damaging to a team as missing on a quarterback, and sometimes more damaging.
The Browns themselves are an example of this. They didn’t even hit the backboard with their last hire, and it almost cost them dearly. It did cost some dearly. People plural lost their jobs, and Jimmy’s wallet took another hit. The problem with constant turnover is that you lose progress in the cracks. Big pieces are replaced and small pieces move on.
This time, though, Andrew Berry took the hiring process and yammed it through the hoop. He himself was one of those small pieces that moved on, taking a job with the Philadelphia Eagles whilst John Dorsey crafted his imperial throne. As much as it seemed like the decision was made to bring him back before the GM search had really happened, I was glad to see him again.
Knowing what we know now, Berry leaving in the aftermath of Freddie Kitchens being hired as Head Coach should have been a tell.
It is extremely hard to hire a Head Coach. Guys who you think should succeed fail all the time, and others succeed after entering the job with little fanfare. Berry knew Stefanski from the last go-around on the Browns hiring circuit, and he had been his choice to take over from the disastrous reign of [insert every Browns Coach this millennium]. With a much stronger voice in the process this time, he got his guy.
Feting people in Cleveland has mixed results. This is a team of false dawns. It has only been thirteen games, and things can and will go sideways in football, but the initial signs are that Kevin Stefanski should be the Browns coach for a long time. I guarantee you that there are teams green with envy that the Browns have found themselves a perfect fit with the Minnesota Vikings lifer.
The Browns have been the lucky recipients of the result of Stefanski’s personality. If he was more concerned about credit, he could probably have gotten a job sooner. His rise seems sudden. Just one full season as a coordinator to being hired as the Head Coach of the Browns. However, he spent over a decade as an assistant with the Vikings, under three separate head coaches. Had he moved around, I do not doubt he would have been calling the shots quicker. But he didn’t, and the Browns have benefitted.
Stefanski, along with Andrew Berry and Paul DePodesta, has done the almost unimaginable. He’s made the Browns quiet off the field, and loud on it. His reserved personality has spread through the team by osmosis. He never gets too high, and never gets too low. The Browns were down fourteen points to the Baltimore Ravens at the start of the fourth quarter and almost stole the game. Kevin Stefanski does not flap.
Regarding the future of the Cleveland Browns, he has done an impressive reclamation job on Baker Mayfield. Make no mistake, Mayfield was *broken*. He learned a lifetime of bad habits in a single season under John Dorsey and Freddie Kitchens. He talked too much, listened to everything said about him, and was seeing ghosts on the field. The record-setting rookie had been bodysnatched.
Now, Mayfield is peaking just when the Browns need him as they chase the playoffs. In his last three games, he has gone 72–109 for 935 yards, eight touchdowns and only one interception. Stefanski had him throw the ball 47 times on Sunday and it was the right decision, not one made in desperation. His pick on Sunday ended the longest streak of his career without throwing an interception. This is a quarterback who understands what his Head Coach is asking him to do. He gets the Why.
Mayfield is focussing on the totality of the job. He has caught out several defenses with his hard count, and his fakes on playaction passes are fooling even viewers. The conversation around Mayfield has moved from whether the team needs to bring in a replacement, to whether the team needs to start talking an extension. Mayfield’s rookie classmate Sam Darnold has been buried by his Head Coach. Baker has been revived by his.
Most importantly, if the Browns did decide to go in a different direction now or in the future, Kevin Stefanski is somebody you can trust with a young quarterback.
This team is by no means complete. There is going to be a huge amount of turnover on defense. They need multiple starters in the secondary, and need depth everywhere. The cupboard is pretty bare for Joe Woods, but I think he is still on a shoogly peg. Stefanski’s “no excuses” comment on Sunday seemed to me about as pointed a comment as you’ll ever hear from him. Woods and the defense did not have a good game on Sunday, and letting Trace McSorley convert a third and long late in the fourth with the Browns in the lead was another bad look.
This team is going to change. The names on the roster this year are going to be different from the names next year. The difference is now they are adding to what they have, and not searching for their foundations. Sunday was a real disappointment. To ensure a playoff berth whilst denying the hated Baltimore Ravens one would have been a high of anybody’s Browns fanhood, not just mine. But there will be more opportunities like this. Sunday wasn’t the end. The ride is just beginning.
