If we were to be so presumptuous to even raise the subject of a Cleveland Browns coaching Mount Rushmore, we would first have to wait for the laughter to subside.
Then most of us would point to Paul Brown, and knock off for lunch.
This is, after all, a franchise that from 1999-2019 employed 11 head coaches (counting interims) in 21 years. That included back-to-back seasons of 1-15 and 0-16.
The Browns’ franchise, which is older than the Super Bowl, has never won the Super Bowl. That’s not a surprise, because the Browns have never played in the Super Bowl.
So when it comes to the matter of a theoretical Cleveland Browns coaching Mount Rushmore, it is not a crowded field. There’s Paul Brown, Blanton Collier, and Marty Schottenheimer. That’s it.
Paul Brown, who virtually invented pro football, or at least the modern version of it, won seven championships in his 17 years coaching the Browns: four in the All-American Football Conference, and three in the NFL (1950, 1954, and 1955). In addition to winning seven league titles in Cleveland, Brown had a winning percentage of .767 (158-48).
Following the 1962 season owner Art Modell fired Brown and promoted Collier, the team’s backfield coach, to head coach. In his eight years on the job, Collier had a winning percentage of .690 (76-34), took the Browns to the playoffs five times, including 1964, when – this was pre-Super Bowl – Cleveland won the NFL championship by beating Johnny Unitas and the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts 27-0.
Schottenheimer coached the Browns from 1984-88 and had a winning percentage of .620 (71-44), reaching the playoffs in four of the five years, including back-to-back heart-breaking losses to Denver in the AFC championship games in 1986-87.
Then the coaching drought began. It lasted until January of 2020, when the Browns hired Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski, whom they had interviewed the year before, but bypassed him, in favor of Freddie Kitchens, who became a one-and-done coach.
So the Browns interviewed Stefanski again the following year. This time they hired him, and they’re glad they did. Stefanski this year should be a strong candidate for NFL Coach of the Year. If he wins it, he would be the NFL’s Coach of the Year twice in his first four years as the Browns’ coach. He won the award as a rookie head coach in 2020, when he led the Browns to an 11-5 record and their first trip to the postseason in 18 years.
This year, no NFL coach has had to maneuver around more obstacles than Stefanski, who lost his perennial Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury in the first half of the second game of the season. Cleveland came into the season with a loaded roster, but it has been unloaded by a staggering run of injuries that has struck virtually every position group on the roster.
In the week leading up to the Browns’ 20-17 win over the Chicago Bears last Sunday, the Browns at one point had 13 players on the injured reserve list, many of them key starters. On the Browns’ first possession of the game with the Bears, guard Joe Bitonio limped off the field with a back condition.
As a result, the Browns essentially played the entire game with only one starting offensive lineman, guard Wyatt Teller. The other four were backups. But they still managed to win the game. Again.
Indeed, the biggest issue virtually every week is how many of the Browns’ starters will be able to play? Whatever the number is, Stefanski has been able to make the most of what he has on a given day.
On paper it’s a star-studded roster missing too many of its stars. One who has answered the bell for every game is defensive end Myles Garrett who has been a destructive force in rushing the passer and creating all kinds of havoc on an otherwise depleted-by-injury line.
“He’s the best player on the best defense in the league,” said Stefanski. “He’s the defensive player of the year, and it’s not close. I don’t know anyone who is in the same realm as him.”
Garrett has been an unmanageable force for opposing offensive linemen, to the point that Browns officials have registered complaints to the league that game officials have seemingly stopped calling holding penalties against linemen trying to keep Garrett out of their backfield.
“He’s frustrated, I’m frustrated when he’s getting held, and that’s something that we’ll continue to talk to officials about,” said Stefanski.
An even bigger problem for Stefanski has been a year-long issue, with which Cleveland’s Coach of the Year candidate has had to wrestle: the quarterback position.
The Browns have used four different starting quarterbacks this season and have somehow still been able to not just survive, but to flourish. Starter Deshaun Watson started only six games this year before suffering a season ending shoulder injury.
Rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson and backup P.J. Walker each were emergency starters at the position for a combined six games, in which the Browns were 3-3.
But then the Browns signed veteran 38-year-old free agent Joe Flacco, who had been sitting at home waiting for his phone to ring. For the Browns it was a season-changing phone call. Cleveland has won two of the three games Flacco has started, during which he has thrown for a combined 939 yards, and seven touchdowns.
Flacco’s experience has allowed Stefanski to become more creative in his play-calling, and the Browns, with a record of 9-5, even with all their injuries, appear headed for the postseason for the second time in Stefanski’s four years as coach.
He’s still in the early stages of his coaching career, but Stefanski’s impact on a franchise that was desperately in need of leadership when he was hired, has been dramatic. Perhaps, eventually, Mt.. Rushmore-like.
