Cleveland Browns Coach Kevin Stefanski Says That He Will Call The Plays

In any given year, who calls the plays for the Cleveland Browns’ offense is a really big deal in Cleveland, because when was anything having to do with the Browns NOT a really big deal in Cleveland?

Never, that’s when.

For all their foibles, fumbles and football tomfoolery, the Browns still own Cleveland. Just ask the Indians. Or even the basketball team; name escapes me at the moment.

In most NFL cities, identifying the person who will call the plays in the coming season is typically a rather pedestrian announcement. In Cleveland, however, it’s shake-down-the-thunder stuff. There’s a reason for that. A legitimate, and unfortunate reason.

You understand that reason if you’ve seen some of the play calling that has gone on in these parts over the last four years, which includes one 1-15 season, one 0-16 season, one gonzo Hue Jackson-Gregg Williams tag-team, and one regrettable, um (lowers voice to a whisper) Freddie Kitchens season.

Based solely on the results of recent test cases in Cleveland, it could be said that any head football coach, with the exception of Andy Reid and a couple others, who thinks he can coach a 53-man team on game day while also calling all the offensive plays, is a head coach on a collision course with becoming an ex-head coach.

So it was on Friday in Cleveland, when a very big deal occurred as rookie head coach Kevin Stefanski, a mere 48 hours before the team’s season-opening game in Baltimore, revealed the name of the person who is going to call the plays for the Browns’ this year: Kevin Stefanski.

Yep, one in the same. Bravely going where so many others – at least in Cleveland – have so miserably failed, Stefanski is not just a head coach intent on calling all the plays, but a ROOKIE head coach intent on calling all the plays.

“I haven’t called a thousand games,” Stefanski said. “But I will tell you, when I’m calling it, we’re very collaborative. So we have a lot of people who have a hand in this and I’m really lucky because I’m surrounded by a lot of really good coaches.”

Last year, as the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, Stefanski called the plays for a Vikings team that finished with a record of 11-7, which included two postseason games, a 26-20 win over New Orleans in the wildcard game, and a 27-10 second-round loss to San Francisco. Minnesota’s average of 25.4 points per game ranked eighth in the NFL.

Stefanski now becomes the fourth of the last six Browns head coaches to also take on play-calling duties. The other three didn’t exactly shine: Kitchens, Jackson, and Pat Shurmur all tried to call plays while coaching the team, and their combined won-loss record was 18-69 (.207). It should be noted that in 2018, his third year with the Browns, Jackson hired Todd Haley as the offensive coordinator/play-caller, but both men were fired eight games into the season.

Following the firing of Jackson and Haley, Kitchens took over as the play-caller under interim coach Williams, and had a brilliant run in the second half of the season. The Browns won five of their last eight games, and Kitchens’ play-calling and immediate chemistry with quarterback Baker Mayfield, who set an NFL record for touchdown passes by a rookie, was so dramatic that it resulted in Kitchens being the surprising choice of then-general manager John Dorsey, as the team’s head coach for 2019.

That decision cost both men their jobs. The coach seemed overwhelmed by the job, and was fired immediately after the last game of a 6-10 season.

Now it’s Stefanski’s turn to see if he can handle the challenging duel role of coaching the team while also calling the plays. In choosing himself for that role, Stefanski bypassed the only other candidate, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, who, like Stefanski, is in his first year with the Browns.

Stefanski’s plate is already piled high with challenges. For starters: he’s the coach of the Browns. He became the coach in the middle of a pandemic that hampered pre-season preparation, wiped out all preseason games, and delayed the start of the regular season.

Stefanski does have an impressive array of offensive weapons in receivers Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry, tight end Austin Hooper, running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, plus Mayfield, whose career may be at a crossroads this season.

Mayfield was sensational as a rookie in 2018, but a disaster in 2019. How he plays under Stefanski in 2020 will go a long way towards deciding whether or not he is still the franchise quarterback the Browns thought he’d become when they drafted him No. 1 overall in 2018, or whether it’s time for Cleveland to resume its search for a franchise quarterback.

When it comes to the Browns, there is never any shortage of drama.