Terry Pluto on why Kevin Stefanski was no scapegoat despite the Browns’ front-office failures
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Was Kevin Stefanski a scapegoat for the Browns’ front-office failures, or had his time in Cleveland simply run its course?
On this week’s Terry’s Talkin’ podcast, cleveland.com columnist Terry Pluto tackled this question head-on, offering a take that goes beyond the simple narratives.
“The scapegoat thing is I, I believe he deserved to be fired for the reasons I talked about just to where he was after six years,” Pluto explained. “I mean, you know, the only coaches who coached more games in Cleveland than Kevin Stefanski are Paul Brown and Blanton Collier.”
But Browns fans, as most Cleveland fans do, will be watching Stefanski to see if he has success at his next stop. One email from podcast listener Chuck Laughlin in Mentor, read on the podcast, captured this sentiment:
“This situation kind of reminds me when the smarter-than-anyone-else front-office ownership moved on from Baker Mayfield to the next shiny object, Deshaun Watson, because they knew Watson was going to be better. I will not be surprised if the Browns’ next head coach is no better than Stefanski.”
While acknowledging the roster-construction issues, Pluto offered a more personal theory about Stefanski’s situation that many fans might not have considered – the concept of simply running out of gas in a difficult job.
“I also believe, and I’ve written this and I will stand on this, there are times when you run out of gas on a job,” Pluto said. “I got that sense from Kevin, that he could be there … the Deshaun Watson trade and all that. This is tough going.
“So, you know, people get fired all the time in pro sports that aren’t necessarily bad at what they do, but sometimes they would be better somewhere else for their own mental health.”
Pluto drew from personal experience, comparing Stefanski’s situation to his own career transition years ago from the Akron Beacon Journal to The Plain Dealer, explaining how a change of scenery can reinvigorate someone professionally, especially after enduring difficult circumstances beyond their control.
This “running out of gas” theory paints Stefanski’s firing in a different light – as a potentially beneficial move for both the coach and the organization.
Pluto went so far as to suggest Stefanski might even feel a sense of relief, free from the pressure cooker that Cleveland had become.
Pluto pointed to concrete coaching issues that justified the change, highlighting a particularly egregious play-calling moment: “I hit bottom on Kevin this year when they played in Pittsburgh and he called 58 passing plays, 52 pass attempts, six sacks. With Dylan Gabriel in Pittsburgh.”
Podcast host David Campbell noted how emotional Stefanski appeared in the season-ending victory against Cincinnati, suggesting the coach might have been auditioning for his next job – further evidence that perhaps both sides recognized it was time to move on.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
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