{"id":656345,"date":"2026-01-05T16:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656345\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:47:12","slug":"cleveland-browns-fire-head-coach-kevin-stefanski-after-six-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656345\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Browns fire head coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski \u201chas been fired\u201d after going 45-56 in his six seasons, with four losing seasons and an 8-26 mark the past two seasons, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER. Stefanski is the sixth head coach Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam have fired since taking over the team in 2012 (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 1\/5<\/a>). ESPN.com\u2019s Daniel Oyefusi notes the firing of Stefanski comes two seasons after he won his second NFL Coach of the Year award and less than two years after he received a contract extension. This marks the \u201csecond high-profile departure from the organization in the past few months.\u201d Paul DePodesta, who served as the team\u2019s chief strategy officer for almost a decade, left the organization last November to become the Rockies\u2019 president of baseball operations<\/a> (ESPN.com, 1\/5<\/a>). <\/p>\n

SAFE FOR NOW: In Akron, Chris Easterling wrote GM Andrew Berry \u201cseems like he\u2019s going to be saved by the Haslams giving out the biggest mulligan in the history of sports\u201d on the trade for QB Deshaun Watson<\/a>, as well as \u201chitting on virtually all of the 2025 draft picks.\u201d There is \u201calways a chance that changes, either his title within the organization or his job status, but for now, it seems somewhat safe\u201d (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 1\/4<\/a>). <\/p>\n

INTO THE SPOTLIGHT: In Cleveland, Dan Labbe wrote if the Browns are \u201cgoing to have hard conversations about where their team and roster stand after winning just eight games the last two seasons, Berry shouldn\u2019t escape the blame for where this has gone.\u201d Berry\u2019s \u201cfingerprints are all over the deal that set the franchise back for years,\u201d as the Browns \u201cwent all-in the day they made\u201d the trade for Watson. It is \u201crare that a GM would get so many bites at the quarterback apple.\u201d Maybe last year\u2019s draft was a \u201csign that Berry fixed some of the issues that led to iffy drafts in his first five seasons.\u201d It also is \u201cpossible that a coach who aligns more with Berry\u2019s vision will help the talent he acquired look better.\u201d But with Stefanski out, the \u201cspotlight of this team\u2019s failures shift to the GM.\u201d Much like \u201ctime eventually ran out on Stefanski changing coordinators and handing off play-calling, time will run out on Berry if a new coach doesn\u2019t transform the roster he\u2019s built into a winner soon\u201d (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 1\/4<\/a>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Browns coach Kevin Stefanski \u201chas been fired\u201d after going 45-56 in his six seasons, with four losing seasons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,10578,6],"class_list":["post-656345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-browns","tag-browns","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-clevelandbrowns","tag-football","tag-leadership","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115843514450510231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}