Browns can build up something with Stefanski
Kevin Stefanski's Browns are 5-3 heading into their game against the Houston Texans in Cleveland on Sunday. Put another way: Stefanski, in his first year as head coach, has a .625 winning percentage – which is better than any Browns coach, ever, except for Paul Brown (.767) and Blanton Collier (.691).
Granted, eight games is a sample size of little or no significance. Gregg Williams, the interim Browns coach who finished off the 2018 season, had a .625 winning percentage. Bakermania! What did that mean? Nothing, as it turned out.
It meant nothing in large part because the Browns pivoted and hired Freddie Kitchens – who turned out to be another mistake in a pile of mistakes that could stock a thrift store. Since the
rebirth of the franchise in 1999, the Browns have had 10 coaches (not counting two interims) and 10 general managers.
They've had 30 starting quarterbacks. They've made the playoffs once.
Since Jimmy and Dee Haslam bought the Browns in 2012, they've hired five GMS and fired four of them. They've hired six coaches and fired five of them.
The story of the Factory of Sadness is known well enough. If you're a Browns fan, you've got a permanent pawprint on your forehead after two decades of slapping your pate. You don't want to hear about it anymore. You've lived it.
Maybe it's time to give continuity a try. Eh?
It's possible Jimmy Haslam is thinking about it. Granted, he has been an untrustworthy owner, seemingly guided by whimsy, going on 10 years. Be he ain't sellin.' He's getting up there in age (66), he wants to win and he's not an idiot.
The point here is there’s a chance Haslam will stick with his current football people – chief strategy officer Paul Depodesta, general manager Andrew Berry and coach Stefanski – and lay a proper foundation. He has tried everything else, right?
Generally speaking, quiet owners are the best caretakers of public trusts. They let their team's record speak, for good or ill. We haven't heard from Haslam in a while.
Is Haslam at present quiet because the Browns are 5-3 – or because he has finally figured it's time to let his football people do their jobs?
Let's hope it's both.
While it is a verity of the NFL that a team can improve by a leap in one draft/ free-agent cycle, it is equally true that lasting success is most often facilitated by continuity. While Berry and Stefanski have yet to earn long-term trust, they've shown enough to be given the time to earn it.
The Browns lost to the Baltimore Ravens 38-6 in Week 1. The Browns lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 38-7 in Week 6. Obviously, the Browns are not in the same class as the two elite teams in their AFC North Division. Can they be? Sure. Just not this year.
I think the Browns have found a coach in Stefanski, who handled the Ravens and Steelers losses with a lowkey smolder. Here's a stat: Through eight games last year, the Browns led the league with 75 penalties for 631 yards; this year, they're 18th with 48 penalties for 410 yards. They can stand the heat when they're out of the Kitchen. Heh, heh.
Stefanski have some players and Berry needs some time to build around them. They seem to know what they are doing. They look like they have a plan. They're beginning to define what it means to be a Brown.
Nick Chubb is a Brown. Kareem Hunt is a Brown. Jarvis Landry is a Brown. Myles Garrett, B.J. Goodson and Austin Hooper are Browns.
Whether the Browns have found a quarterback in Baker Mayfield remains an open question. But this can be said: Mayfield has a pocket in which to operate this year. OK, maybe not against the Steelers, but most of the time. He is getting his feet under him.
In the next draft/signing cycle, Berry will need to address a substandard defense and its sub-sub-standard secondary. In the coming hours, Stefanski needs to beat the Texans (2-6). The game will be a decent gauge of the Browns' progress this season.
Chubb, out since Week 4 with a knee injury, is expected to play.
The Texans are more talented than their record indicates. That said, this is a game the Browns should win. And if they do, Stefanski will raise his winning percentage to .667.
marace@dispatch.com