Browns' Kevin Stefanski taking back play-calling duties won't end well in Cleveland

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced he'd be taking offensive play-calling duties back once again next season, according to Zac Jackson of The Athletic.

Stefanski turned over the job to former offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey for the back half of last season, after Deshaun Watson suffered a season-ending injury. The Browns' offense bottomed out under Dorsey and backup quarterback Jameis Winston, ranking dead last in the NFL in scoring and 28th in yards.

But let's not act like Stefanski taking those duties back instead of giving them to Tommy Rees is a sign of good things to come; in fact, it may be the opposite.

Before Dorsey took over playcalling duties, the Browns still had one of the worst offenses in the NFL. They failed to crack 20 points in any of their first seven games, and Watson looked like maybe the worst quarterback in the league. Things didn't improve much under Dorsey, but they did show some occasional signs of life; Cleveland scored 20 or more points three times with Dorsey calling the shots and Winston throwing passes. While that's not great, it's markedly better than things were with Stefanski.

And while last season was an outlier in terms of offensive production, it's not like this team was a juggernaut in previous seasons. Cleveland has ranked in the top 10 scoring offenses in the league all of once under Stefanski, in 2023 when Watson was replaced by Joe Flacco due to injury. They've never ranked better than 14th in total offensive yards under him, either.

Some of this is Stefanski's preferred style of play; the coach is a run-first playcaller, and prefers to run a play-action system that can result in fewer big pass plays and a bunch of extended drives.

But even in Stefanski's best seasons, when the running game was humming, Cleveland's offense fell in the middle of the pack. Even more damning than that is the fact that Baker Mayfield, the quarterback Stefanski and the Browns ran out of town to replace with Watson, has blossomed in Tampa Bay in the last two seasons, becoming the player many thought he could be out of college.

On top of that, this team is not the same as it was, even as recently as 2023. They lack competitive talent at wide receiver, and none of the three running backs who saw regular action this season looked remotely capable of shouldering the load moving forward. Maybe Nick Chubb will be back to normal with a full regular offseason this year, but if he's not, who in this lineup is capable of delivering for this team?

When the upside of your offense is "maybe we'll crack the top 10 in scoring," it might be time to give up the reins and let someone else take a crack at things. Maybe Tommy Rees isn't the guy to trust with that, but Stefanski hasn't exactly set the world on fire, either.

The Browns are a mess, and while it won't make much difference who's calling plays next season, Stefanski holding the reins is a surefire way to catch a fair amount of the blame when things go wrong.

And if history is any indicator for this franchise, they will go wrong.

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