Is Kevin Stefanski the REAL PROBLEM with the Cleveland Browns?

Is Kevin Stefanski the REAL PROBLEM with the Cleveland Browns?

With that, let’s dive into the topic that everyone wants to get to, and that is about the Browns head coach. It’s brought to us by Mazda, moving the game forward for those who believe it’s not just about playing the game. It’s about redefining it. Because these moments do more than win. They push what’s possible, reminding us to go that extra yard, shift into that extra gear, and keep the game moving forward. When you follow what moves you, the unexpected is only the beginning. And just like there’s more to every highlight, there’s more to every Mazda Mazda move be moved. That is the fastest we’ve ever gotten through shotgun reactions and I think it is for good reason. We all came in hot today about the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, none other than Kevin Stfansky. I’m going to ask this question simply and bull. I want you to kick us off because you even wouldn’t tell me your full thoughts on Stfansky in our pre-show meeting. But is the Browns biggest problem right now the head coach bowl? No, it’s not their biggest problem, but it’s a problem. He is a problem. The biggest problem is the owner. I mean, so you can’t fix that. So, he’s the biggest problem. And there are problems, obviously, talent-wise, certainly. So, I’m not going to say Kevin Vinci is the biggest problem necessarily, but I don’t think he’s I no longer think he’s part of the solution. And there’s a there’s a few reasons why. And then I’ll tell you what put me over the top yesterday. First of all, this has been and and still is and I I think will continue to be a very undisiplined team. They make stupid mistakes all the time. They do stupid things. Things that good organizations don’t do. You want to know one of those little things which I don’t even know if any of you guys noticed this on that final drive when the Browns had the ball as big a long shot as it was. So they were going to score a touchdown to win. They get the ball with 25 seconds. They complete a pass to Isaiah Bond. You guys remember that midfield? What did Isaiah Bond do the second he caught the ball? Does anybody see that? He signaled for a first down. He signaled for a first down. That’s clown behavior. And that clown behavior happens because the coach allows it to happen. No, it’s not the coach’s fault. It’s the No, the coach lets crap like this go down all the time. There’s little instances that all of these things on their own are not a big deal. But when you add them all up, it’s a big deal. That is clown behavior. There I’m telling you, there’s no there’s I and and fine, prove me wrong. Uh there is no player on on the Kansas City Chiefs doing a celebration of a first down when you have almost no chance to win. Who knows? You could have wasted the two seconds that they needed at the end. It’s so silly. Things like that happen all the time. Pre- snap penalties. Uh the special teams disasters. disasters constantly unacceptable just mistakes that we see time and time again year after year. Nothing changes. When we heard that Kevin Stfansky was allowing uh was allowing Deshun Watson to he was not being criticized in film work unlike other guys. I was like, “What is happening here?” When DTR doesn’t even know he’s playing before a game, is completely unprepared. What is happening here? Why do these things not happen with other teams? Kevin Stfansky is a smart guy, but that doesn’t make you a good football coach. I’m not even saying he’s a terrible football coach. He’s just eh. And I think it’s I think it’s time for a new Now, I got zero faith that the guy he repl that replaces him is going to be any better. that, you know. So, I I don’t know. We just got to get lucky because Jimmy Hasslam doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Anybody that thinks he’s a good owner is as clueless as he is. Just cuz he spends money doesn’t make him a good owner. He’s a horrible owner. And any smart person in football will tell you he’s a horrible owner. He is a buffoon. There’s no doubt about it. And it’s a buffoon organization. So, I don’t know if you can salvage things without Kevin Stance with with the next guy. But the only two excuses I ever hear of why to keep Kevin Stansky as two-time coach of the year and well, he’s better than what we had. Well, that doesn’t matter. The goal is not to be mediocre. The goal is to win a championship. And maybe that’s impossible with this organization and this owner. Maybe it’s never going to happen, but it doesn’t mean you you give up and accept mediocrity because of that. And the final and I and I’ll say this, I’ve been a little wishy-washy on Kevin Stfansky for the last year. And I blame Jason. And this is honestly a very big compliment to Jason. I really don’t care. Anybody that knows me knows this. I I care about almost nobody in the media what they think about me. I make fun of other people in the media, which a lot of media members don’t do. It probably hurt I know for in fact I not probably I know with 100% certainty it has hurt my career along the way. That’s just who I am. I can’t help it. If I don’t like you, I’m going to say it. That’s me. I respect very few members in the Cleveland media. There’s almost nobody in the Cleveland media that I care what they think about me. Jason’s one of like three people that I care what he thinks about me. And Jason has been so steadfast and he may end up being right in the long run. I don’t know about Kevin Stfansky that it’s made me doubt myself a little bit on Kevin Stfansky. I got to admit that. And I’m if you know me, I almost never doubt myself. I always go with my gut, but he’s made me hesitate a little bit, which ultimately is my fault, not his. But it just shows the respect I have for Jason. But the way he to me using those timeouts on defense yesterday, I Jason’s going to give me the reason why. Maybe he’ll talk me into it. I have no idea. The idea that he was calling these timeouts cuz the Vikings are going to supposedly run out the clock. What is he talking about? The Vi a field goal would if the if a field goal would have won the game, then I understand calling the timeouts. But a field goal ties the game. The Vikings don’t want to settle for a field goal. They want to score a touchdown. So they’re not gonna play the clock too too much. And by the way, when he called the second timeout, it was first down. So if the Vikings wanted to, they could have run the clock out anyway. They’re out of timeouts to make them. Exactly. So they could have done it anyway. So the only hope in a way was that they either didn’t score and then you wouldn’t need those timeouts or they score quick, which they did at that point, and you need the timeouts, but they didn’t. He didn’t have them. I mean, it was you Listen, I Are they going to score with 25 seconds left even if they had two timeouts? Probably not. The fact of the matter is they got into position. Well, but they would have defended them a little differently. Maybe they had two timeouts. But still, it was a long shot, but it would have been a much better shot with two timeouts or at the very least he should have had that last timeout. Maybe I maybe you could argue using the one timeout, but once it gets the first down, I mean, what’s the point? they could if they go till third down, they could run the clock anyway, even with using that timeout. So, that to me was crazy bad clock management. And that was the final straw. And I would fire him right now because I ju I just don’t see the point. Uh and and maybe I’ll give him the rest of the season to somehow change my mind. Uh the season’s lost. But the one last thing I’ll say, and I’ve rambled for a while, is that when we talk about lack of talent, I picked I believe I picked the Browns to go five and 12 this year, I think, was was the record I had them. But when I picked them to be five and 12, I didn’t think their defense would be as good as it is. Like I thought their defense would be good, good. But the impact that the two rookies and that what’s his name? The DTackle they got from Seattle. Collins and Malik Collins have had Greg Newsome’s improved play. Alex Wright playing better. The defense is way better than I thought it would be. Quinn Sean Judkins. I thought he’d be good. But when we were making predictions, we didn’t even know how much he was going to play, right? He’s phenomenal. I don’t know if people get that. This kid is unbelievable. He’s the next great back. If you would have told me before the season that Quinn Sean Judkins is the next superstar back in the league and the defense would be this good, would I have picked the Browns to make the playoffs? No, I would not cuz I don’t like the quarterback situation. But would I have picked them to win more than five games? Yeah, I probably would have could have made a run at 500, maybe seven, maybe uh as bad as the quarterback play is and I thought it would be and it’s been even worse to be fair. So maybe that evens out a little bit, but I would have certainly maybe picked them for six or seven. I don’t know. Still not a very good team, but they’re not a two I don’t buy that they’re a two and 15 talent team. I don’t buy that. They’re not that bad. And right now they look as bad as any team in the league on offense. They’re the worst team in the league. The worst team in the league. You got the best back in the league. Okay. The the offensive line played this KT Tonill on the Sunshine, boys. This guy sucks. Can we put somebody in there? You know, I mean, I I get it. They’re lacking at wide receiver. They don’t have a left tackle. That’s a problem. The talent’s not good enough to really win. But when you they’ve been in most of these games, finish the deal, and they can’t. And to me, a lot of that goes on Stfansky. There you have it. The rebuttal. The rebuttal. Let’s go. There’s there’s there’s a lot there. And I actually agree with a lot of what you said um at different points. I I probably should have been taking notes the whole time. Here’s here’s what I’ll say about Kevin. Um I I’ve never said that he’s Andy Reid or Mike Tomlin. I’ve never put him in that category. Never once. I’ve never thought he was a top three, top five head coach. But bull, you hit on something that I think is imperative to the argument when you talk about ownership and when uh when um Josh McDaniels, sorry, I lost his name. When Josh McDaniels interviewed for the Browns job, however many years ago that was, and he was like the top candidate and uh everybody wanted him and I know it turned out he wasn’t a very good head coach, but at the time he was a pretty hot commodity and I think Dustin would probably be able to corroborate most or all of this. So he goes into the interview, sits down with Jimmy, and basically says, “You need to fumigate the entire building. Everybody has to go. Everybody has to go from the top all the way to security. The entire building has to be cleaned out, and you need to start over.” You know what Jimmy did? He stood up, shook his hand, and put him on the plane. He wouldn’t do it. So to me, by the way, what was Josh McDaniel’s petri dish? Like where Yeah. New England. But so he knew he knew what a a winning what the organization looks like and how it’s supposed to be done. Kevin to me is really good at and I I I know the record, but Kevin is good at navigating through all the obstacles that Berea presents. And you can like listen, I’m not going to argue with anybody who says they want the coach gone. You can build a great case to fire the coach. A great case when you look at less than 20 points and all that stuff. Yeah, you’re right. Like on paper, you can build a case, you look at that, go, “God, he’s got to go. That coach is awful.” But I think when you understand the nuance of what you’re dealing with in being in that building, I’ve seen the chaos that that position has to deal with. And I’ve seen the head coach and the GM and the power struggle that happens every single time. And I look at the situation and I look at the fact that they don’t have a quarterback and you can scream and you can holler all you want. Boy, you still would have picked them to win five games because you got a 40-year-old quarterback and two rookie back. You’re not going to win in this league with a 40-year-old quarterback. You guys all stood here and told me how much you wanted the 40-y old quarterback. Well, you got him. He sucks. You can’t. You can’t. He might end up with their only win. You can’t. No, no, no. This team’s going to win games. They They are going to win games. This is a brutal start to the season. We knew it was going to be Everybody sat up here and said, “Oh my god, they might be 0 and six today, but they got to win some games.” is one of You can’t finish two and 15. Yes. And I think And I think they will. And like Bo, you and I both said, this is a really good defense. It’s going to keep them in games. It’s going to give them a chance to win games at the end. That’s exactly but I didn’t think it would be this good. I didn’t think because I guess I wasn’t buying into the rookies being so impressive. Guess what? You needed one stop yesterday. You didn’t get it. They didn’t get it. It wasn’t good enough. You let them go 80 yards. Denzel Ward, your second best player that play. And and and I’m not trying to blame the defense for yes. Like the defense was great yesterday, but when you needed them most, they weren’t there. The running game was great yesterday. When you needed them most, it wasn’t there because it’s not a good football team. If you want to blame the head coach for that, go ahead. You want to fire him, go ahead. I’ve seen the dysfunction that comes with that. And I just think that like if you give the guy a quarterback and let him go, it can be very good. And like I know everyone’s going to kill me and everyone’s like, “You’re on Stfansky’s payroll.” Whatever. By the way, I’m the one who wrote the fact that he wasn’t coaching Deshawn. I am. I’m the one that wrote that. So don’t tell me that I’m not critical of him because I am. And you’re 100% right and like some of the DTR nonsense that went on. You’re right. You’re a thousand% right with that. So it’s not perfect. Uh I just think what I I just keep thinking back to that McDaniels thing and I keep thinking back to like he wanted to clean out the building and they told him, “Okay, see you. Jimmy’s not going to give him that control. He’s going to be in the Friday meetings. He’s going to be in the Monday meetings.” And the way that they run things and the way that they operate things is so dysfunctional that it is very much a part of the organization. And until that is cleansed, and it’s never going to be cleansed, it is a massive obstacle for any coach to overcome. Which is why I said a couple weeks ago, I truly believe the Browns only chance at actually winning at a high level is to get lucky on a quarterback like the Bengals did with Burrow. That is their only chance. Short of that happening, it don’t matter who the coach is. It don’t matter who the GM is, they are not going to win. They can’t just get that piece right. And because of that, because I’ve heard you say that before, they’ve got to get lucky on the quarterback and that would help. But the problem is there’s too many moving parts around that where an organization like Kansas City can get a Mahomes and ride a bunch of Super Bowl wins. New England can get lucky and get a Brady and win a boatload of rings. But the organizations, both of them are great culture organizations. They don’t have slop everywhere else. Well, but Jay, we don’t know that the Patriots aren’t. They had a great They sucked before Brady for the most part and they sucked since. Well, they won Super Bowls because of their defense. And go look at the numbers. Brady was always there, but they won a couple of Super Bowls because of their defense. So, what I’m saying is without Bill, you can run into a lucky quarterback. You can do that. Cincinnati. What have they done? They’re a slap organization. But at least they went to the Super Bowl. But did they win it? And have they been back? But so what I’m saying is you can get the right guy Cincinnati and you can muck it up. I don’t think anybody would call Buffalo a bastion of excellence, but they’ve got Josh Allen. Now, have they won a Super Bowl? No, that’s my point. But guess what? We still have another 10 years. So my point is like all of the things that have to happen to win a Super Bowl. I I I agree with you. Quarterback is at the top, but there are a lot of other things that fall in place. And here’s where I am, and I’ve been there. I have zero faith that this organization can get all of them right at the same time because they haven’t gotten anything right. So, yeah, you do have to look into a quarterback. I’ll agree with that. But I have no faith that they can not muck everything else up to the point where they’re actually going to win a Super Bowl. Before you go, before you go, Jason, there’s one thing you didn’t rebuke from Bulls saying that you I I know you said you wanted to the timeouts late in the game. The clock, what was the explanation? You want you want to do that now? I thought we would keep going on Kevin. No, this is all on Stfans. Sorry because Bull was upset with how he used the timeouts blame Stfansky for that. I’m curious what your take on that is before. I don’t have I don’t have the playbyplay in front of me. I’ll bring it up. Once so you’re talking the the last defensive play when Minnesota scored once um once Jefferson made that catch down the sideline to me this just me everybody can disagree with me that’s fine. The game flipped because now they’re in field goal range. Yeah. So now it’s a matter of preserving time on the on the back side. Whether they score a field goal or a touchdown, they are going to score. So you’re trying to preserve as much time as you can to get the ball back. If you don’t call timeouts there, they had 25 seconds. If he’s not calling timeouts there, maybe they have 5 seconds, 6 seconds, 3 seconds. I agree with that. But to Bull’s point, and Bull I I maybe I’m misremembering the playbyplay in this situation. But to me, I I agree with you. When he caught that ball, I’m like, okay, their game now. Now it changes. In my mind, they could have just not scored a touchdown. They could have kicked a field goal. Run the clock out and kicked the field goal. They didn’t want to do that. If they if they were willing to run the clock out and just kick a field goal to me, if I’m the Browns with that and you’re going to leave with with timeouts in your pocket? No, you’re you’re No, but if they’re going to run the clock out, you’re going to leave with timeouts in your pocket. Yeah. So, what sense is Why are you going to leave with You’re going to take him with you to next week? Because I you going to buy a steak dinner with me? Here’s the thing, Jason. I don’t I don’t buy that that was ever going to happen because if you’re the Vikings, you want to score a touchdown. You don’t want to lose time. You want to end the game. So, you’re trying to score as quick as possible. Yes. Which is why Kevin is trying to preserve time. So, if you’re trying to score as quick as possible, you’re going to leave something. You have to preserve time cuz they were trying to score. They weren’t slowing down the game. Well, then let them score the touchdown and get the ball back. We’ve seen that before. I’m all with that. That’s what I was saying at the time. Let him in. So you’ve got Well, I don’t let him in because because they weren’t that close. No, I know. But they were like you, I felt it’s a fatal compleky calls the timeout. Let’s say they didn’t score on that. They they scored the touchdown right after Stfansky called the last timeout. I got a pull play by play. I I’ll bring it up here. Here we go. I got the playbyplay in front of me right now. I’ve got it pretty. Go ahead. They So he uses the last time out and then on the next So he uses the He uses the last time out after they had just gotten a first down. What is the point of that? Because if they score on the next play, you get the ball back. But you got if if they score on the next play, you get the ball back anyway. You still have the timeout. They weren’t running clock at that point. There might have been even if there was I’d rather have 20 seconds left and a timeout than 25 and no timeouts. The Vikings weren’t slow playing it. They were moving. They weren’t trying to waste the clock there cuz they needed a couple of plays to be able to score potentially. So, when he took the timeout to save the 10-second runoff, did you like that or no? I didn’t like that either, but I could live with that one. I could too. I didn’t like that one. But it’s the same It’s the same concept. It is the same concept. Ultimately, you’re saving yourself 10 seconds. You’re trying to say where when you have the ball on offense, there are ways to stop the clock. No, here’s why I I could live with that one. I didn’t like it. After that play, it was third down. So, you call the timeout there. If you stop them on the next play, then it’s fourth down. And then I wouldn’t have had a problem with him using the last timeout because it’s fourth down. They got to kick a field goal and and there’s still a a minute left. Not 25 seconds left. There would have been 59 seconds down, right? I would have been okay with no timeouts at 59 seconds left. That was the game. That third down was the game, right? That was it. All right. I mean, it would have, you know, they probably make the if they make the field goal, then you go to overtime or maybe you have, you would have the Browns, in my opinion, should have had almost a minute left with no timeouts or 20 25 seconds with one at least one if not two timeouts. Well, they had it with 25 and none. So, if they don’t use their timeouts, they’re going to have a lot less than that. They’re probably going to have what, 10, 15, and one. So, he called, wait a second, he called the timeout. He called his first timeout after the Jefferson 20 yard catch down the sideline, right? And that’s when the game changed to me. And that was with 110 on the clock bowl. So, first down for Minnesota, 110 on the clock. And that’s now you’re playing defense on the clock if you’re the Browns from that point on. Yeah. Second timeout came after the two-y pass to Jordan Mason where he did not get out. Get out of bounds. That was to avoid the 10-second runoff. He’s trying to preserve time. And then the third timeout came after the third and fourth play where he hit Jat uh Jordan Addison on the left side, right? And he got a first down. And then he used his final timeout and he used his final there was no point in using it there that one here cuz here’s the thing. So they get the final let me let me bring up that play for a second. So it’s a third down play that it’s third and it’s third and four, right? They get a first down with there was 54 seconds left. He called his last time out. It was first down when he called the timeout. So at at that point, two things were going to happen, right? If the Vikings wanted to just run clock, well then they weren’t going to score a touchdown at that point. They were going to just or maybe one play and that’s it. And it he and and Jason, you said, “Well, you want to save time because what if they score on the first play?” Well, if they score on the first play, right? But if they’re they weren’t the Vikings weren’t like purposely running clock, I think they’re trying at that point they’re trying to leave Cleveland as little time as possible obviously, right? But they also had to worry about because they wanted to score because they wanted a they their priority was a touchdown there. They weren’t going to just run clock. That was my point. The the last time out I could probably I see where you’re coming from with that. I think that one I see why they did what they did and I I think that’s one of those 50/50 however you want it to be. I had no issue with the first two timeouts the way See, I feel like the sec the first time out. Okay. The second time out to me was the 50/50 one. You think the third one is? I think the second one’s the 50-51 and the third one was a terrible decision because the Vikings could have still run the clock out even more if they wanted to in theory even after that timeout cuz it was only first down. the way that it ended. Certainly, they could have used a timeout there and it would have been to their benefit, but I’m looking at the it’s impossible to know if they get the ball back with 25 seconds. Had they not called a timeout, what do they get it back with? 17 15 13 11 It’s impossible to know. Yeah. I mean, so then is it better to have 17 15 in a timeout or 25 and no timeout? How long did it take him to get up and clock it? Yeah. You know, I I don’t know. Yeah. So that I I’ll hear you. I’ll hear you on the one timeout. I didn’t have an issue with the other two. G. Bush, you’ve been very quiet for the last 15 minutes on this and I know you and I who spoke last night. Uh you are not unopinionated when it comes to this topic. The floor is yours, my friend. Well, let’s start let’s start off by saying this. Uh the most damning part about this situation is we talk about all the time what Kevin Stfansky wants to do, what Kevin Stfansky’s game plan is, what his playbook is. Uh think about this. The Cleveland Browns did run the ball well. They had a hundred yard rusher and Quinshan Juckkins. The Cleveland Browns didn’t turn the ball over, right? No turnovers. Dylan Gabriel threw for two touchdowns, right? The defense did held did hold uh the Vikings under a league average of 23 points. They held them to 21. By the way, we talk about being opportunistic. They didn’t get the ball over, but guess what? The Browns got two takeaways, right? They did all of that. And I believe they they won time of possession, too, McNuggets. Is that true? Am I correct in saying that? Or was it close? It was close. It was close. I’ll tell you the exact right now, G, if you want to know the exact minutes. The Browns had possession for 30 minutes and 29 seconds. The Vikings 2931. So So they they won essentially 50/50. So 50/50, but they did win they did win time and possession, but guess what? You still did not score more than 17 points. You had everything go the way you said you need to win football games for the Cleveland Browns, and you did not win the football game. And that is because it’s not necessarily about what his offense is and how you gonna move with it, even though we’ll get to the how bad it is. It’s the fact that you still have other things holding you back. You still have penalties holding you back. You still have people not doing the right things holding you back. You still get p long touchdowns called all the way back. And we just talked about the time management thing. But by the way, special teams has been bad for the Browns since under Kevin Sansky. We got to get very specific because sometimes when you when we do narrative based things and we talk about whether you’re a good coach or not, you got to get very specific. You know, I do the field breakdowns and I watch this thing and I watch all the game 20 all 22 and I’ve just been telling y’all for the same reasons for I guess well over six weeks or six years, excuse me. The Cleveland Browns offense is not imaginative. They run stick routes, random out patterns, and and random flat routes. They got guys turning around, running up the field, turning around, sitting down for four or five yard passes. The reason why you have no separation is because you are not imaginative under no way, shape, or form. We talk about all the time about how great your offense is. They are running the most rudimentary offense I’ve ever seen in my life. And it happens week after week. You think top flight receivers want to play in this high school playbook? Did you see the difference between the Kevins, the Okonnell, Kevin Okonnell who had way way more uh things going wrong? We sat up here and talked about how the Vikings had three offensive linemen out, right? We talk about the Vikings have Carson Wentz, right? We laugh about Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz not only was Carson Wentz himself, but he was hurt. He hurt his shoulder in the game and had to get shot up and come back on in. By the way, their starting running back wasn’t there. Guess what? They found a way to work and they fumbled the ball two times. But guess what? You know what he did? He said, “I got a guy, Justin Jefferson. You know what I’m going to do? I’m gonna spam him. I’m I’mma throw him the ball more than G. Bush gets refinancing of his mortgages and his junk files. Stop telling me I’m not refinancing at this percentage. I told you I’m just working on something right now.” But the reality of the situation is it it doesn’t just happen with this situation. You can go league to league. You can go week to week. Hold on. Let me just bring this up real quick. Hey, did you know M. Jones threw for 342 yards on the road against the Rams. 342 and they won in overtime. You know who his number one receiver was? It wasn’t KD. It wasn’t Brandon Iuk. It wasn’t none of them. Debo Samuel Bingone. It was Kendrick Bourne. 10 catches 142. Kevin who was known as the drop king before that game. They can’t get all the receivers combined to get 10 catches for 142 in any games. The problem is this. We keep giving him passes because you’re scared. You are scared. Anybody who is scared to say, “I am unwilling to go for the unknown and stay safe and take these L’s.” That means you’re living in your fears. And the problem that you’re going to have is when you keep losing this way, you can say the quarterback is this and the quarterback is that and the quarterback is in 26. Maybe your coach is in 26. Maybe your general manager need to be in 26, too. Because at the end of the day, the players that you’re accumulating, the guys that you want picks for, they’re sitting here looking at him and he preaching, “Guys, we got to be better.” No, they say, “You know, no dust, Sherlock. You got to be better. I know what plays we running. I know the time the timeout issues that you got.” And they looking at him and you know what losing breeds? It breeds e it breeds three things. Either apathy, resentment, or you got people that just check out. And all three of them continues to lead to losing. This is a human battle. This is all about human 101 nature. And he he’s devoid of any feelings or emotions because if he would give you something in the post game, he may be able to reach people. But you know what? When you give the same answers that says you don’t care. Don’t tell me something on camera that you preaching the opposite behind camera. At the end of the day, when Quinn Sean Juckkins was talking about how how it it’s five games in, he’s a beast. He’s a monster. He said at Ohio State, everything was about winning. Every day was about winning. It’s about you either win today or you lose tomorrow. It’s about winning. That’s the only thing that mattered. So yeah, it’s a it’s a culture shock when you get here and you one and four and it’s frustrating. So you know what you telling him? Even your young players, you telling him it’s okay to lose just cuz you want to be comfortable and have the same coach. What kind of noise is that? At the end of the day, if I got 60 people in the locker room that need to go in the field and believe they can win every day and the coach is sitting here year after year, I didn’t seen you waste Nick Chubb’s time. I didn’t seen you waste Baker Mayfield’s time. And as a matter of fact, we said Deshun Watson was the problem last year. But what how’s the offenses changed? Joe Flacco looked the same. DTR looked the same. We said put the supercomputer in. Guess what? Dylan Gabriel looked the same. At some point, this is not an anomaly. This is a feature of what he does. Sometimes you got to admit you just might not be good at your job, bro. Maybe if you just give the play calling up and do something. And we always talk about the 20 points. This is the most damning part and I’m going just give it back cuz this is irrefutable. the time you was getting 20 points, it was all under Ken Dorsy and Jameus Winston, who we said was a travesty, was a gu was was bum. We now Ken Dorsey can get 300 yards every week. He’s over with the the Dallas Cowboys. By the way, I always said it. I found it was funny. Alex Van Pelt got scapegoated. He got fired when he got coach of the year. How does your offensive coordinator get fired when the defensive coordinator won defensive uh assistant of the year? Miles Garrett won player defensive player of the year. Kevin Safoyski run his second coach of the year and and they had five different quarterbacks play. Joe Flacco came off the bench, came into the game and they went to the playoffs. But the offensive coordinator got fired after that. The reality is Kevin Skipfansky been scapegoating and skating on people way back when it was Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham Jr. The problem is you guys is just now catching on to it cuz I told you once you put them rookies in tick tick tick you on the clock cuz we watching you. We done changed everything else except for the coach. Say I’m lying. Uh we haven’t changed the general manager either. Well, he’s on the clock too. They they And by the way, let’s not get to before I give it back to you. I don’t want to hear nobody talking about they ain’t got the talent. Y’all told us from Jump Street, you was lockep. Me, we make a we make decisions as an organization. Stfansky and Barry, Barry and Stfansky. Guess what y’all said? Y’all got the same approach top down. You know what they said? We want analytics. They said analytics from top. There ain’t no football people in there. It’s all analytics people. So the people you chose, you pulled them right off your old IBM spreadsheets. They didn’t show up and be say, “Put me on the squad.” You’re the one that said, “Go get Joe Flacco.” You’re the one messed around and gave Kenny pick it all the reps and just jettison them out of the the the building when nobody else got reps. And now you want us to give you a reprieve because what? You picked the quarterback room. You you chose these people. You the one told G. Bush for three years in project stockpiled as I emailed you. What about the receivers? We like our receiver room. What What about the offensive lineman? We We’re going to figure it out. We just move some things around. I told you you was taking L’s. And by the way, yeah, you don’t have linemen because you swung and miss on a bunch of other people. Where’s Jed Wills at? That was a top 10 pick. I’m not going See, you can’t have it both ways. You picked the people. They You chose them. They turned out to be good. And now you want us to tell you to give you the keys to the car to draft more people and another quarterback when this one. Nah, I told you. Tick tick tick. You on the clock. Go ahead, Jay. Browns have, by the way, Browns have scored less than 20 points in 21 of their last 24 games going back to week 17, week 18 of 2023. That is astonishing. Yeah, that is I I knew that three games that they were over were with Jamus. That is astonishing. Yeah, it really is. That is incompetence of the highest order. Um, so how many games should they win with Joe Flacco and two rookies as quarterbacks? How many games should this team win? I’m not going to put it on wins and losses, Jay. I tell you why. I I I All of you guys say the truth. Like, if I listen to you guys in a vacuum, bull, I’m 100% with you. If I listen to Jason, I’m mostly with you. Gee, I’m 100% with you. The thing to me that stands out the most out of what everybody said, I’m not firing him in the middle of the season, not because he’s great, because I have no idea what they would do. It accomplishes nothing. They would a and right it there are goals to this season that don’t include winning games. Jay told us about them from July. We got to figure out what we have here. We So don’t fire him in the middle of the season because you’re going to screw that up. If you were going to fire someone in the middle of the season, he should have been fired last season. We should have hired Mike Vrabel. I said if you’re going to fire him, fire him after last year. Why are you going to fire him now? Why? Why? That doesn’t make any sense. You were three and 14 last year. Everything was a disaster. You want to fire him? Agreed. Sweep everybody out last year. Yeah, but that ship has sailed. Um, you know, we’ll have to watch Mike go do his thing in New England just like we’re watching T uh Baker do his thing in in Tampa. So, I’m I’m I’m with you. I think at the end of the year, I I do want to evaluate the rest of the season. Let’s let’s see what we have. It’s one game with a rookie quarterback. I got to see more before I make judgment calls on on Dylan Gabriel. Um he took care of the football. He was not nearly as accurate as I thought he was going to be. Um but our our passing yards total is that this is doesn’t matter who you play at quarterback, unless it’s Jameus Winston or Joe Flacco, you get 150 yards. They’re not throw They don’t throw to receivers. It’s hard to pile passing yards when you don’t throw the ball to receiver. The reason you don’t throw to your receivers is because you’ve got a major blind spot at evaluating receivers. And every receiver that you have brought in here for the last six years has been absolute garbage. I’ll wait for a name that hasn’t been. Judy hasn’t been garbage. I know. Judy’s garbage. He’s not garbage. I’m sorry. This year he can’t garbage this year. I agree. He can’t catch herpes. He certainly wasn’t garbage last year from a hooker. can’t catch her from the hooker. No, I hear you. Listen, he’s been terrible this year. I No, I’m just calling it garbage last year. Here’s the problem. Protection out there when you’re a quarterback and you’ve got no wide receivers and and you’ve got pieces of I thought the offensive line looked a little better, but when you have pieces of the offensive line that couldn’t play in the Canadian league right now, left tackle’s the biggest left. And by the way, where do you start? rest is the rest is although I noticed some misses in the middle guys who are normally rock solid and I wonder how much of that Jay is because they’re so bad over there Joel got beat on a couple I saw that he got beat a couple times I thought like wow that’s uncharacteristic you said something I want to circle back on because I heard it too Judkins talking about the culture at Ohio State oh no we didn’t have any losing days and and listen in his entire year at Ohio They lost a fluky game on a loophole that the head coach found in the rules that has since been changed. Yeah. Other than that, his 365day experience at Ohio State was like heaven. Football heaven. Now the Michigan game killer, but they bounced back and they won the grand prize. And they learned from that loss. Have we learned from our losses? Now, how long will it take before he can’t wash the losing culture off of his winning culture? How long before he looks around and says, “Damn, this is status quo. This is acceptable.” I’m going to read you guys a stat that I think says a lot about the head coach. And it’s not an anomaly because we’ve got seven years to that. We’ve got enough sample size to say that this is this is a characteristic of Kevin Stfansky coached teams. In terms of penalties against in 2019, 2019 wasn’t him. I thought I think 2020 was his first. 2020 was Kevin’s first year. 19 Freddy 2020. Yeah. Eighth. Eighth most penalized team in the league. Yeah. 2021 seventh. 2022 7th 2023 second 2024 fifth. This year we’re 10th. So, you’ve got six years to look at and and I’ve had general managers tell me, Rich McKay, the OGM of the Bucks, used to say, “You want to know the if you want to know the mentality of the room of do they hear the coach’s voice, look at the penalties at the end of the year.” And the fact that we are in all of those seasons, the worst 10 in the league. You mean you can’t mix in a middle of the pack one year? I wonder where I bet you it’s even worse if to me the most egregious penalties are pre- snap. Yes, that is the worst. And his mostly seem to be like personal fouls just like stupid. I bet you they’re even worse in those. I think I I don’t know how you’d separate them both, but I think you’re probably right because it seems like you know and and also like the most inopportune times you get these penalties. There are some years where like really good teams lead the league in penalties. I So I think you have to look at the individuality of them, but I 100% agree. pre-napper. Absolutely. Absolutely. You cannot have those. I can give you the rank. There are some teams, you know, the old Raiders teams let let the penalties every year are some like a couple really good teams where the Ravens and the Chiefs are I’m on the penalty counter right now. This year, the Browns have 14 pre- snap penalties. That’s insane. Which is the Vikings lead the NFL with 20 a game. If they have 14 pre- snap penalties, I’m guessing the terrible tackles are probably responsible for eight or nine of them themselves. Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. Miles gets a lot of, you know, he does. Miles gets a lot of off. I’ll live with Miles because it’s the ones with Miles driving. He’s so good. He doesn’t need I know. I know. But also the part of the reason he’s so good is because he’s off on the ball movement. He doesn’t. He could start late and he would. He could, but he knows that sometimes the difference between getting to the quarterback and getting to air is attemp My problem is G. Hold on. They finished first in the NFL in 23 and 24 in pre- snap. Say what? Yeah, they first. first in the NFL. I don’t want to get sidetracked on penalties here. But uh one, two, three, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. They’re tied for 10. I don’t even want to get sidetracked on penalties. I only bring that up is because that’s a characteristic of Hang on. Go ahead, G. But but here but here’s the thing. I need to see on good teams, you see players check other players. When when when you get re when you get stuff brought back because of penalties, there are players that are saying, “Listen, on the side, hey, listen, we can’t have that.” And if if it has to be me and you fighting, then we just going to have to fight it out. And but you’ll understand that the rest of us, you’re hurting the rest of the team. But the problem with it is Jay and I’ll give it right back to you is it’s starting to look like I even start to see some of the veterans kind of not it’s like they they losing and it it don’t hit them. It don’t m I like the David and Jooku thing. I was watching his behavior. I’m like bro you know you losing right? Did that bother you too? You know you losing bro like I I know you jumped over somebody but you know you losing right? you know, you at this point it seems like people is already starting to be like, “Oh, listen. I’m I got the contract. We good. I’m, you know what I’m saying? I’m going just go ahead and do my thing.” That’s when it get That’s the alarming part cuz a lot of people people hit me up, G. Bush, what’s so I seen a lot of the veterans don’t even seem like they got that that want to and I said, “Well, that’s what losing is.” Go ahead, man. Yeah, I do think the culture has um devolved to the point where everybody’s accepting it. They are not a good team and they knew going in they were not they knew at the start of the year they were not a good team and I’m not the Patriots weren’t supposed to be either. In fairness, the Patriots have a quarterback they drafted in the top five. They do and I like them a lot. But I also think that it’s not an applesto apples comparison. I don’t think not yet. And and by the way, the Browns might finish with a better record than the Patriots. I don’t know. All I know is from watching the teams, if I wasn’t even looking at the scoreboard. Yeah. I just see I just see two different cultures. I see a different culture in New England than I see in Cleveland. Browns are not going to the playoffs. Obviously, they’re not going to go winning. Obviously, I do think that there are wins coming. No, this was such a brutal start and everybody, we all said it. Everybody knew it. Everybody knew this was an 0 and6 starting them in the face and they looked into one win. They had opportunities actually for a couple others. Uh the you know what, I give them Cincinnati, but Green Bay was also a game they should have lost. Absolutely. So, I mean, you just flip-flop those. We should be one and four. That’s what we should be. That’s where we are. And you know, the other games yesterday, they should have won that game. I have a lot of games. I would say they could have won that game. They were in position. By the way, the division stinks. The Bengals are terrible. The division’s awful. The Bengals I think the Bengals are crazy if they don’t go out and get a veteran quarterback. No, I want them to lose every game the rest of the year. I know you do. Of course you The season’s over. I don’t want This division is Pittsburgh’s division going away. Out of out of five games, we could beat Pittsburgh next week. It wouldn’t shock me. Shock me. It wouldn’t shock me. It would shock me. I I would not be Florida if we beat Pittsburgh. out of five games they have put themselves in position to win the game at the end of the game in three of the five and they couldn’t get it done. That’s a fact. Because they’re not a good team. They’re not a good football team. Jason, if you’re in the game, you got to find a way to win. They have terrible quarterback play and they’re not a good football team, but they were winning the game yesterday. Yes, they should have won and they blew it because they’re not a good football. If you want to blame the coach for that, fire them. Go ahead. I’m not arguing that anymore. I wouldn’t fire them. But I understand though that they’re not a good football team. Like anytime they Well, they’re not good. They’re not. Okay, that is just a loser’s mentality. It’s the reality. Okay, it might be the reality, but Jay, sometimes perception is reality. Sometimes if you constantly tell yourself you’re not a good team, guess what? You’re not a good team. This is a team good enough to win. So, I can’t say they’re not a good team. We got a above average defense. We’ve got an above average running back. What we Yes, you’re right. We’re not good at wide receiver. We’re not good at offensive line. But you can’t win you can’t win consistently without with terrible quarterback play no matter how good. And and so you can spin this any way you want and you can blame whoever you want. Ultimately it comes down in this league more than any other league. It’s the one position and they don’t have anything anywhere remotely close to competent play there. Yes. But you know what I I’ll just say and you’re right. You’re right. Ultimately they’re they’re not a good football team and and but Kevin Stfansky is part of the reason they’re not a good football team. Sure. And the organization is a big part of the reason because as G said and he’s right, Barry and Stfansky work together. They haven’t done a good enough job putting together a good team. And that’s why we’re in a position in year six of their time together where they’re essentially starting over again. They have to start over because the debacle at quarterback. That’s why they have to start over. Otherwise, they would not be starting over. Here’s the thing. They made every single decision, Jason. They made the decision and you were in favor of it. Hey, they made the I’m not the one that’s running the brown. Everybody here was except they was and it was wrong. But they get they get paid dollars to do this. They decided Baker wasn’t it. Nobody held the gun to their head. They said it was that was they didn’t want to pay him. And again, let’s keep it 100. Baker contributed that the Baker thing has been so misconstrued and twisted. Here’s this is reality. In the NFL, this is a resultsbased business. Yes, you made the decision. You said you didn’t want Baker. That’s fine. We going to roll with it. You said you wanted Deshawn. We roll with it. Okay, cool. But the thing is that you got to we got to start saying if the quarterback is the most important position, then the person who is coaching the quarterback should be second. You know, honestly, the best reason to fire him at the end of the year that nobody has mentioned, there is a smoking gun out there. If Jackson Dart isn’t good, he’s great. Like Jaden Daniels type great. Oh, yeah. That’s reason enough to fire everybody because you got to you just got done telling me there was one quarterback in this draft that you liked. Lose to the Saints though yesterday. They did. I mean he did not play well yesterday. We got a long way to go. But if Dart plays like really I don’t mean I don’t mean Bo Knicks. I mean Jaden Daniels. He has to be phenomenal. If he is phenomenal this year, that’s reason because you can look at him and say you told me there was only one quarterback worth taking. As much as I like Mason Graham and as good as I think Mason Graham’s gonna be, I’d rather have a franchise quarterback in that spot. Yeah. So, that alone could be enough reason to sweep everybody out at the end of the season regardless of how the Browns. By the way, I know it’s a different sport, but the Guardians were not a good baseball team and they made the playoffs. And they’ve got a great culture. They’ve got a great culture. And that’s that’s my point where I don’t want to hear they’re not a good team. The Guardians were not a good team, but their culture is phenomenal. Their culture is phenomenal. Their front office is phenomenal. and it was enough to get them into the playoffs. And here’s the thing with the Browns. We’re saying they’re not a good team. They could be 3-2 right now. The difference of winning and losing in the NFL is minuscule. And so if we’re good enough to be three and two, but we’re only one and four. I’m sorry, I’m looking at the head coach. The culture sets the temperature for everybody in the room. And right now, our thermostat’s broken. It don’t bust it.

The Cleveland Browns came into London hoping a change at quarterback would spark their season, but it ended with the same frustrating result — a 21–17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings and a lot of questions about Kevin Stefanski. Dillon Gabriel, making his first NFL start, did everything you could ask from a rookie: no turnovers, two touchdown passes, and steady command in a pressure-packed environment overseas. Yet despite all that, the Browns once again crumbled in key moments. That’s not on Gabriel — that’s on the head coach whose situational awareness and offensive play-calling continue to hold this team back.

It’s becoming a tired story in Cleveland. Stefanski’s offense looks sharp for stretches but constantly stalls when the game is on the line. The Browns went 3-for-15 on third downs and failed to generate any rhythm in the fourth quarter, a script fans have seen too often. Whether it’s poor clock management, conservative red-zone calls, or just a lack of killer instinct, Stefanski hasn’t been able to fix the same issues that have haunted his teams for years. He’s supposed to be an offensive mind, yet the creativity and aggression this team desperately needs always seem to vanish when the moment gets big.

Now, credit where it’s due — Stefanski brought stability to a franchise that used to live in chaos. But stability doesn’t win you playoff games; adaptability does. The Browns have a top-10 defense and enough offensive weapons to win, but coaching decisions continue to waste opportunities. If Cleveland doesn’t turn this around soon, the conversation can’t just be about the players anymore. It has to shift to the man calling the shots. Kevin Stefanski might not just be part of the problem — he might be the problem.

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The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show is your daily source of the best conversation about the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Guardians, Cleveland Cavaliers and Ohio State Buckeyes, as well as sports throughout Northeast Ohio. Produced by Mike Lucas, Anthony Antonelli, and Earl Mauldin. Hosted by Jay Crawford, Adam the Bull, G Bush, Jason Lloyd, and Tyvis Powell.