Browns General Manager Andrew Berry had almost effusive praise for head coach Kevin Stefanski during his annual bye week press conference on Wednesday morning.

That’s all well and good, and it was a kind gesture, but it counts for absolutely nothing at all in the grand scheme of things. It was, for all intents and purposes, a waste of time.

For Berry is not Stefanski’s boss, so his opinion doesn’t count. It’s the opinion of Browns co-owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who, of course, are Berry’s bosses, that counts, and they’re not saying a word. Who knows for sure, then, what they think about their two top football men, but considering the way the Browns have crashed and burned in just a half-season, going from a team that entered the year with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations to now one that is just 2-7 and firmly out of contention following a lopsided 27-10 home loss to an average Los Angeles Chargers club last Sunday, I can’t imagine that the Haslams are exactly singing those men’s praises at this point.

I still think the Haslams, who are proud people and don’t like being unsuccessful in any business endeavor, especially one as public as an NFL club in a football-crazy community, may well end up firing both Berry and Stefanski, possibly even before the end of the regular season. Indeed, in a disastrous year like this, any option— and I do mean absolutely any option — is on the table.

Also from Berry’s presser, he said everyone — all parts of the team’s top brass, from the Haslams to Berry and Stefanski — were on board with the decision to make the epic failure of a trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson. That may or may not be true, for Berry says next-to-nothing and has been known to stretch the truth even on that. However, I fully believe the Haslams and Berry were all in on it and they just handed it off to Stefanski and told him to make it work. I think that Stefanski, because of Watson’s character issues, didn’t want that kind of personality being brought into the locker room and, with him as the quarterback, being the face of the team. Stefanski is too good of a man for that. He has a family to come home to every night. How would he explain signing off on that kind of lewd behavior to his wife and kids? The answer is he couldn’t, and wouldn’t.

Steve King