Cleveland Browns Acquire Elusive Continuity With Extensions
Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
The Cleveland Browns brain trust is here to stay, with Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry both receiving extensions last week. Since moving back to Cleveland, the Browns franchise hasn’t exactly been known for its stability. Forget the right direction, fans were desperate for any direction at all. But with Stefanski and Berry in charge, the Browns faithful is getting both.
Since Berry and Stefanski assumed control of the Browns, they’ve led the team to a 37-30 regular-season record and a 1-2 playoff record. Before Stefanski took over, the Browns had seven different coaches since 2009, and six of the seven coaches had a winning percentage of .375 or less. Their most successful coach in that time? Congrats to Gregg Williams, who finished with a scorching 5-3 record. Needless to say, Stefanski will be the only coach who has coached a fifth year for this version of the Browns.
Stefanski and Berry have done a good job of attracting free agents to Cleveland and getting quality players to sign extensions. Players like Jerry Jeudy probably wouldn’t have been excited to sign after a surprise trade to the Browns in the past, but now? Cleveland is finally a quality place again to play. Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, and Deshaun Watson both bought into Cleveland’s plan with extensions. They not only attracted Za’Darius Smith in free agency last year, but got him to sign on again this offseason.
These are the kinds of things that probably wouldn’t have happened six or seven years ago. Now they are, and it’s because of the trust players have in Stefanski and the rest of the coaching staff.
After signing the extension, Stefanski talked about how he believes the trust that he and Berry have in each other has helped make the partnership so successful.
“I think for Andrew and I, it’s a partnership where we take our job seriously,” Stefanski told the media. “We understand the jobs we have in this town. We understand our fans and what they want this team to be. So, we’re just going to focus on working, every waking minute to get this thing where we want it.”
When this duo took over Cleveland, there wasn’t anything to build on. They had to install a foundation from scratch. Now they have, and with it comes the next step: Expectations. Deshaun Watson looks like he’s going to be fully healthy heading into the season, and with the offensive talent this team has, there is pressure on this team that’s unfamiliar to the organization. Even having an isolated winning season used to be a huge win for Cleveland and their fans, but that isn’t the case anymore.
Stefanski knows this. Even though the extension is sealed, the coaching staff can’t take their foot off the gas. “Nothing changes for us. We walk in this building – when you’re talking about Andrew, myself, and I think every coach, every player, you walk in here and you have a job to do, and we focus on that job.”
That isn’t a process that needs to be rushed, and it might take years to prove that this stability is for real. But each year the Browns aren’t the bottom-dwellers of the NFL is a step closer to the Browns turning around their franchise forever.
It starts at the top with Stefanski and Berry, but quarterback stability is going to also be a key long-term. Watson is signed with the Browns through the 2026 season, and with $230 million owed, he needs to get back to his All-Pro status. Rebuilding a franchise is a slow process, and the Browns need to continue to treat this like a ladder. By re-signing the decision-makers on top, the Browns have now gone up another rung on the ladder. Now it’s time to climb up another rung or two as they try to win the ultimate prize: a Super Bowl title.
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