Cleveland Sports Radio Caller Blames Kevin Stefanski For Nick Chubb Injury
By Liam McKeone
The Cleveland Browns have not had a good stretch recently. Nick Chubb went down with a horrible knee injury against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football. The following week Deshaun Watson, for the first time in a Browns uniform, looked something like the quarterback he was pre-sexual assault accusations in a dominant win over the Tennessee Titans. Then Watson somehow got hurt in practice leading up to this week and the team was forced to start rookie fifth-round pick Dorian Thompson-Robinson on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.
It did not go well. Cleveland lost 28-3. They now sit at 2-2 and it's hard to project how the rest of the season unfolds. The defense is dominant but obviously needs some help from the offense. They never know what version of Watson they might get, which was true before his shoulder injury muddied the waters even further. And everyone is still bummed out about the Chubb thing. Understandably so.
All that brings us to Monday morning, when Browns fans had a lot to get off their chests. One fan, calling into The Ken Carman Show With Anthony Lima, was especially displeased with Kevin Stefanski and raved about the head coach's inability to call plays because he has "too much talent." The rant climaxed by the caller claiming Stefanski's terrible play-calling directly led to Chubb's injury.
The line of logic is a bit tough to follow but the whole thing was handled beautifully by Carman and Lima. Veteran radio host strategy on display here.
If this season continues to go poorly for the Browns we'll hear more about Stefanski's seat getting hotter. It is interesting his job hasn't really been in jeopardy at any point in the last three years but he's been dealt a bizarre hand every season so it makes a certain amount of sense. But you can only go so long without results in the NFL.
He definitely did not cause the Chubb injury, to be clear. But Stefanski needs to step it up if he wants to be the subject of angry radio rants by passionate fans in Cleveland for much longer.