It hasn’t been a good time to be a Cleveland Browns fan. The team took on Deshaun Watson hoping to get the best out of him. Instead, it’s been disappointment after disappointment as they deal with one of the largest contracts in league history.
To make matters worse, their generational defender, Myles Garrett, has officially requested a trade. The lone saving grace for the franchise was its head coach. Kevin Stefanski, in his short tenure in the NFL (five seasons as a head coach), has already bagged two Coach of the Year awards. However, he doesn’t have his locker room with him.
Players Not Buying Into Kevin Stefanski?
The NFLPA did its annual survey, allowing players to vote on their organizations based on a variety of categories. The Browns did not do well as a whole, but Stefanski coming in as the third-worst coach was a true shocker.
To put it in perspective, the two names below him have already been fired. But Stefanski, who’s built a solid résumé in just five seasons, isn’t winning his players over.
He finished 30th in the ranking — “67% of Browns players feel their head coach Kevin Stefanski is efficient with their time, a rank of 29 out of 32. The players feel that Stefanski is moderately receptive to locker room feedback on the team’s needs, ranking him 30 of 32 head coaches in the league,” says the NFLPA’s website.
“Players express concern about poor time management and a lack of culture, accountability, and standards within the organization.” For a team that won just three games last season, it’s hard to argue with the players’ frustrations.
Despite their record, on the defensive end, where Cleveland excels thanks in large part to 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, they were a top-10 unit according to PFSN’s Defense+ metric. Yet, that couldn’t overcome their finish as the worst offense in the league, per PFSN’s Offense+ metric.
It seems clear that the players aren’t buying what Stefanski is selling. However, their criticisms of the franchise go beyond just their head coach.
Browns players also graded the locker room an F- (ranking 31st in the NFL), criticizing the size and amount of space they have. They also complained about the treatment of families, grading it a D+ (28th in the NFL).
“The players believe that the coaches’ families are treated better than players’ families. For example, the coaches’ families have a post-game meet-up inside the stadium, while the players’ families meet in a tent in the parking lot,” read the report.
A tumultuous summer might have just gotten even more complicated for the Cleveland Browns. The 2025 NFL Draft, in which they have the second overall pick, just became all the more critical for them, and they need to figure a way out of this mess.