DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Stefanski and Berry

I see in the news where it's being reported that Stefanski and Berry are safe? It's special that owner Haslam wants to hold on to the worst head coach/GM combo in the AFC North, record wise over the last 5-years. Here is how it looks inclusive of this week's games:

COACH_________TEAM___REG SEASON____PCT___#PLAYOFF__RECORD___PCT_TOT RECORD__PCT____DIV Titles
1. Harbaugh_____BAL______51-30_______.630_______3_______2-3_____.400___53-33_____.616______1
2. Tomlin________PIT______50-31_______.617_______3_______0-3_____.000___50-34_____.595______1 (18 straight years without a losing record)
3. Taylor________CIN______41-38-1_____.519_______2_______5-2_____.714___46-40-1____.529______2 (Only Super Bowl appearance for AFC North last 5-years)
4. Stefanski_____CLE______40-41_______.494_______2_______1-2_____.333___41-43______.488______0 (Has never won AFC North)

Only coach and GM with a losing record cumulative over the last 5 years in the division. Highest team payout the last 2-years with 2025 looking like they'll be the highest again. Nothing better than holding on to your Head Coach and GM with a 5-year losing record, no Division titles, and spending more money than any other NFL team in the "factory of Sadness"!

Not to mention an aging roster and a complete inability to identify/deal-with the QB position...I mean...other than < that...and ^ that...it's good tho.

Question; will Kirk Cousins be available for us next year just as a bridge QB. He's paled for KS before. Maybe a better option than JW although he hasn't been playing well lately. We are really screwed at the QB position right now.

I wish they would try and pry McCarthy from the Vikings. With Darnold having a career year, perhaps they will re-sign and move McCarthy. I see nothing in the draft worth taking in the top 10 picks.

No thanks to Jador or the kid from Miami.

Unfortunately you’re both talking to deaf ears.
This’s an organization who takes pride in losing and whatever the results say nobody is going to be hold accountable.

Andrew Berry history as a GM is filled with bad decision making and the inability to build a competitive team.
In LA a former Browns QB is toying with the Chargers defense and deliver TDs in a speed that Stefanski can’t even dream of.

How many QBs have Stefanski used since 2021?

Until somebody is hold accountable nothing will change but maybe in the factory of sadness that’s something to be proud about?

I think it's because without the boneheaded Watson trade he knows Stefanski would have the best record of any coach in Browns history over 5 years.

He's won with so many different QBs and no superstar playmakers on O. So that's why Stefanski is (and should be) safe IMO.

As for Berry, pretty good job overall, again EXCEPT the worst trade in NFL history, Watson. Only have 2 theories there:
1) Haslam knows he made Berry do the trade, like he hurt us with Manziel, and other choices in the past.
or
2) Haslam wants to lose.

I don't want to accept #2 cuz it feels kinda conspiracy theory-ish, but logically I just cannot find any other way to explain the things we've done.

Please tell me what Berry has done well.. a few keep saying this while completely ignoring reality and facts. Not a knock, just genuinely curious what some see as good performance. For me its plainly obvious how bad he is.

Even outside of the Watson trade, the way they handled Baker was just horrible from a GM standpoint and even coaching.. You paid Keenum 10million which is like the highest paid backup of all time, then Baker gets hurt, so instead of sitting him and letting him heal and turning to your 10million dollar backup, you kept sending him out there to get pummeled.

Then the Cap, most expensive roster in NFL, and 5th oldest. Doesn't look good for future prospect, a rebuild is coming

Talent Acquisition- Not a single player he has drafted has done anything or would be considered a playmaker. The closest one is the glass house of JOK, who consistently scores below 70 PFF and usually hangs around the 70 mark, thats a starter, nothing special about him. Cooper, brought him in, but had to pay a huge contract because he can't draft WR to save his life, same with Jeudy. We are spending in FA like we have unlimited money because his drafts suck.

Even all that aside, neither Berry or Stefanski has done anything that would say this is group to take us where we want. What we get is up and down constantly. Which is the most frustrating part. You have a good season, thinking the next year you will take a step forward and then boom, back in the basement because of no talent and horrible coaching.

All that said, and I have said before, I give KS another go before I do Berry, Berry has been one of the least impressive GM's of my lifetime. I think KS has the ability if given decent players. I don't think he has much ability to develop players and thats on him and his staff. So that puts a real emphasis on talent evaluation and acquisition

I think you need to pick a side here.

#1 Either Berry has terrible drafts and can't identify talent or.......

#2 Berry is giving Stefnaski good talent and Stefanski just can't develop it.

It's hard to take it seriously when one blames the GM because he doesn't draft good players while at the same time blaming the HC because he doesn't develop the terrible players the GM is drafting.

Overall, I think he's done well considering he hasn't had first rounders. I think his CB picks have been solid (again, considering he's making those picks w/o first-rounders).

Granted, it's hard to give a ton of compliments to the same guy that has his name under the Watson deal. I'm ignoring that part of the equation since the ask is what he's done well.


I think his non-Watson FA moves have been overall very strong. His FA DLine moves have been really good (which it had to be considering his DL drafting).

Some people want KS fired. That's fine they are entitled to their opinion. My question is who are you going to get to replace him? We have a very bad QB situation, a questionable salary cap, we have older players on the O-line and need a rebuild there and more talent up and down the roster. There are probably better situations on other teams. I doubt we'll get the best HC candidate here. JMO

I truly believe we have one glaring issue and that’s the QB position. Gotta pick up two FA QBs and draft one for the future. The people that need to go is the non performing players. DW first.

even if this was truly, hardly a ringing endorsement to keep a guy in charge of a billion dollar company. His CB picks have been horrendous, have you seen Emerson this year.. Most every single player in the secondary is below a 70 pff, some are crazy like emerson who's a 48 and mike ford who is a 27.... so yeah I can't agree with that.. As far as the no first rounders, seems to be self inflicted. Thats what I'm saying. He has not been good and he has not put the team in a good position to be successful long term

what is everyone's thought on trying to get Fields.

Yeah, I don't know what's going on with the defense. They've regressed back to the mean and some of the problems that got the previous DC canned are resurfacing. Emerson and Newsome have shown potential, but are down this year. Ford was originally a UDFA who's spent time with like 5 different teams already, so I'm not sure where you're going with that one.I don't think Fields would be a good match for a KS offense.

The issue is these two topics are tied at the hip. They are one in the same. The watson deal is why he didn't have any first round picks. Without the watson deal he has all of those first round picks. The only question in all of this is did he get a good return on the investment of all those draft picks? The answer is without a doubt no. But make no mistake you can't separate the two.

I don't know... KS had baker and couldn't make it work. DW was a top 3 before coming here.. People forget KS was pretty far down the totem pole at Minn on the offensive/qb as far as scheme/identity goes. Childress, Norv Turner, Kubiak some pretty big names that hand their input and hands on that offense. Last time we had a QB that KS worked with we paid him 10million to not come in and play when the starter got hurt.. With what ATL still owes Cousins, he ain't going anywhere, they are in same position we are, except they already drafted his potential replacement

I'm just saying that you said one of the things he did well was at the CB position, Was just using data to make my counter point, nothing else.

I also have to give him credit for his move to get JOK in the second round.

Flacco signed a one year contract with the colts. Kinda wonder if he would consider coming back. Like a two or three year contract to give us time to find that guy.

As a 3rd QB mentoring a rookie would be awesome. He’s long in the tooth, but at least he’s fun to watch. And less likely to throw a 50-50 ratio of turnovers to touchdowns. But making him the guy doesn’t make a ton of sense IMO. Only if the future is on the bench learning, then it makes a little sense.

I don't know. It could make more sense now that last year. Last year we were still pretty committed to Watson. I don't think we were interested in starting a QB controversy leading in to this season.

The mojo is different now, so who knows?

I agree.

I do think more of it is with Berry.

It sounds great that an NFL coach should develop players, and he should, but that widow is fairly small. Between salary cap concerns and free agency, an NFL coach has limited time to "develop" players. At a fairly early stage that coach is going to count on some of those guys stepping in and do a good job.

I agree with this. and I've said same thing Pit said before, theres really only two viable trains of thought. I am for giving KS the benefit of the doubt over Berry, AB has proven nothing that he has what it takes to build a good team. The players seem to respect and like playing for KS, thats like 75% of the battle there, I would like to know though whos decision it was on all the assistant coach turnover, because I think we went backwards on every single replacement

"...an NFL coach should develop players...." - I agree with this but only at a macro level. There needs to be accountability by the assistant coaches if players are not progressing in their technical/skills development. (Personally, I would replace all assistant coaches with a new staff).

"....all the assistant coach turnover, because I think we went backwards on every single replacement." - Totally agree...

Spot on and that's why it's impossible to support Andrew Berry.

He misjudged the future of both Mayfield and Watson. That's totally unacceptable in his position.
It doesn't matter what he does after making the worst trade in the history of team sports.
Trying to judge if he has done well with FA signings and a couple of second or fourth round picks makes no sense when the Browns near future is in shambles and the results stinks.

The bottom line is that Berry has ruin at least 5-6 seasons of this organizations future. How the owners and some supporters can come to the conclussion that he should be rewarded with another five seasons after this fiasco is beyond my imagination.

There is one person that needs fired. That's the the person that trade for Watson. I don't care what the name is, but whoever thought that would be a good idea, needs GONE

I don't disagree with what you all are saying. Maybe I'm just splitting hairs, but if you're just looking at his drafting ability (identifying talent) then you do have to take hte lack of draft picks into account.

When you're talking about roster-building... absolutely. Let him have it. The Watson trade was us putting literally all of our eggs in one basket. What I especially have a hard time with (with the benefit of hindsight) is how Watson, even when he's playing well, is like the polar opposite of what (IMO) a KS-type QB should look like. Plus the image of backyard/improvisational players playing within a KS offense was still fresh in our minds. Much has been debated about who was responsible for making the Watson trade happen. For me, until there's evidence that clears away the doubt, then I choose to blame the guy whose role includes getting guys to put on the roster.

The GM owns it. This isn't some "awww, my bad" deal. It destroyed the team.

Watch them try and trot Watson out there next year. He’ll be the all healed, healthy, new and improved version.

I looked into Cousins as well. He had a pretty good season earlier in the year but over the past five games or so has turned into a turnover machine. Maybe Minnesota who spent so much time with him saw and knew something the rest of us didn't see coming? If anyone should have learned that lesson as to why good teams let their QB's go when it doesn't seem to make sense it should be Browns fans.

The trade for watson is why we didn't have those draft picks. That's like saying he shouldn't be blamed due to the hell he was in when it was he who created the hell he was in.

Maybe, or did ownership demand they pull that trigger? Or did the coach say he wanted him?

Overall, I bet you are right, but I'm saying, its not beyond possible that Haslams wanted to do it.

You cant fire ownership.///

If that's what they do, then I hope it works out. I just don't see it.

I thought back then and I still believe, take a kid with character issues and put $230 million in his pocket, It will not solve the character issues.