BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns have fired head coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons.
The Browns finished the 2025 season with a 5-12 record en route to their second straight last-place finish in the AFC North and their fourth losing season under Stefanski.
The decision to part ways with 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.
From 2020 to 2023, Stefanski led the Browns to two playoff appearances and the highest winning percentage (.552) for the team over a four-year stretch since 1986-89. But Cleveland has struggled over the last two seasons with a combined record of 8-26. This season marked the Browns’ fourth losing season in six years under Stefanski.
Stefanski posted a 45-56 regular-season record and guided Cleveland to the playoffs in 2020 and 2023. He won his first Coach of the Year award in 2020 following a season in which the Browns defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round of the playoffs, the franchise’s first postseason victory since 1994. Stefanski was not on the sideline for the game and was unable to coach after testing positive for COVID-19. He won his second Coach of the Year award for helping guide Cleveland back to the playoffs in 2023 despite a litany of injuries, which included starting five different quarterbacks.
The Browns are once again embarking on a search for their next head coach, who will be the franchise’s 11th since 1999. Stefanski’s firing marks the second high-profile departure from the Browns’ organization in the last few months. Paul DePodesta, who served as the team’s chief strategy officer for almost a decade, left the organization last November to become the Colorado Rockies’ president of baseball operations.
Cleveland’s issues in recent seasons were highlighted by ineptitude on offense, which was supposed to be Stefanski’s calling card as play caller. The Browns scored fewer than 20 points in 11 games this season, tied for the most in the league. When Cleveland returned from its Week 9 bye, Stefanski announced that he was handing play calling duties to offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. It marked the second consecutive year that Stefanski relinquished the responsibility.
The Browns used three different starting quarterbacks in 2025 — Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. Flacco, who helped lead Cleveland to the playoffs in the 2023 season after Deshaun Watson was sidelined by a season-ending shoulder injury, started the first four games but was benched amid a 1-3 start and then traded to the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 7.
Gabriel, a 2025 third-round pick, started six straight games until he suffered a concussion against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 11 that paved the way for Sanders to make his first start. Sanders, a 2025 fifth-round pick, started the final seven games of the season.
Watson, whom the Browns traded three first-round picks to the Houston Texans for and gave a fully guaranteed $230 million deal in March 2022, did not play in 2025 after suffering a torn right Achilles tendon in Week 7 of last season. He underwent a second surgery in January after re-tearing his Achilles and spent the first 13 weeks of this season on the physically unable to perform list. The Browns designated Watson to return to practice on Dec. 3 but decided not to activate him to the 53-man roster at the conclusion of his 21-day practice window.
League sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter in December that the Browns are planning to have Watson, 30, on the roster in 2026. Sources told Schefter that Watson’s practice window was opened so that he would not be away from football until next spring.
Watson has only played in 19 games because of suspension and injuries since making his debut with the Browns. He has a 33.1 Total QBR since joining Cleveland, which is tied with Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward if Watson had played enough to qualify. Watson has one more year remaining on his contract and a $80.7 million cap hit in 2026, the largest in the NFL.
