The Browns firing former HC Kevin Stefanski shook up the offseason, but should Andrew Berry have gone in his stead? That’s what Browns beat writer Zac Jackson certainly seems to think, faulting Berry for Cleveland’s current predicament. In the fallout from Stefanski’s firing, they also lost acclaimed DC Jim Schwartz, so there’s that, too.
For The Athletic, each AFC North beat writer chose one head coach decision that was the most surprising. “I’ll stay close to home and say the Browns’ decision to scapegoat Kevin Stefanski but keep general manager Andrew Berry was puzzling”, Jackson wrote.
“Berry drove the disastrous Deshaun Watson trade, and Berry constructed the offense that fell flat on its face the last two seasons. Stefanski didn’t win, the special teams stunk and the offense was a mess. However, the Browns remain in an awkward spot, and to me, it was time to let a new chief architect make the decisions on the crucial next set of moves”.
The Browns hired Andrew Berry, for the second time, in 2020, coinciding with the hiring of Kevin Stefanski as head coach. The two helped spearhead two successful seasons—but only two. After each, Stefanski earned Coach of the Year awards.
While the Browns didn’t see great success under Stefanski, the greater NFL clearly didn’t hold him primarily accountable. He quickly landed on his feet as the Falcons’ new head coach. I’m not sure that Andrew Berry would so quickly have landed back on his feet had the Browns fired him instead.
The Deshaun Watson trade is, of course, one of the worst moves any team has ever made in professional sports history. He has performed poorly on the field and rarely played. Since missing most of his first season with the Browns due to a suspension stemming from sexual misconduct allegations, Watson has repeatedly suffered injury after injury. Most recently, he missed the entire 2025 season recovering from a torn Achilles—which he tore twice.
Andrew Berry’s Browns front office gave up three first-round picks as just the crown jewel of the king’s ransom paid to the Texans for Deshaun Watson. That thrust Kevin Stefanski into the difficult position of having to actually play him, with little satisfaction.
That’s far from the only issue the Browns have had under Berry, though it’s not like things were great before him, either. Stefanski, however, seems to be the primary common denominator in the relatively little success they have had in recent years. And considering how they handled the hiring of Todd Monken as head coach over Jim Schwartz…well. The Browns is the Browns.