Four years ago, someone within the Browns organization had a bright idea. It metastasized into the worst transaction in NFL history.
In lieu of keeping Baker Mayfield as the long-term quarterback, the plan was to make a deal for Deshaun Watson. Even though he had missed an entire year of football, and even though he was facing an inevitable suspension based on more than 20 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct during massage-therapy sessions.
The Browns were one of four finalists for Watson, along with the Panthers, Saints, and Falcons. When Watson made the Browns the first team out of the contest, they upped the ante with a five-year, $230 million contract, with every penny guaranteed.
It didn’t work. Combined with the young, cheap players the Browns could have had via the draft picks that were shipped to Houston, the Browns dug a multi-year hole for themselves.
Now, despite somehow cobbling together a playoff run a year after the Watson debacle, Kevin Stefanski has taken the fall for failures that trace to the failed trade.
We still don’t know who had the first idea to chase Watson. Was it Stefanski? G.M. Andrew Berry? Former chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, whose strategies over a decade with the team rarely panned out? Or was it owner Jimmy Haslam who said just enough to send a message to his employees that the boss wanted Watson?
Haslam was asked about the Watson deal when he met with reporters on Monday.
“I mean, I don’t think we need to cover it again,” Haslam said, ignoring the fact that the Browns have never really explained how the disastrous plan was hatched and formed. “You know, when you trade for a player and you give up three number ones and two number threes, that really depletes your ability to raise the roster. So, did it have impact? Yes.”
And Stefanski has now taken the fall for it.
But here’s why Haslam felt compelled to do something, we believe. Beyond the annual imperative to persuade fans to renew their season tickets, the Browns will likely soon be selling PSLs that reportedly will range from $550 to $193,650 per seat. The initial reaction to the “survey” regarding PSLs was not good. To get fans to help pay for the new stadium by making a massive investment in the fiction of securing the ability to sit in the seats they’ve separately purchased, a shakeup was needed.
Never mind the fact that Stefanski has been a steady hand for a chronically dysfunctional organization. Ignore that he has consistently made chicken salad with the fecal ingredients the front office has supplied him with.
In 2020, Stefanski ended an 18-year playoff drought, and he racked up the first postseason win in the history of the reconstituted franchise. In 2023, with Joe Flacco joining the team in November, Stefanski took them back to the playoffs again.
Stefanski will land on his feet, somewhere. He’s the current betting favorite to become the next Giants head coach. And he’s among the favorites for the Atlanta job.
Other vacancies could emerge. And if he’s not instantly hired as a head coach, he’ll surely be given the chance to become an offensive coordinator.
Wherever he goes, there’s a good chance the next stop won’t be as dysfunctional as the place where he spent the last six seasons.
