STEFANSKI DESERVES MORE LOVE THAN THAT

By STEVE KING

If you read this website, Browns Daily Dose regularly – and obviously, we hope you do – then you know my admiration for si.com.

I think it is the best website out there, especially concerning the NFL, and also in terms of providing insight. I didn’t think l would feel that way after the great Peter King left si.com for NBC Sports, but I was wrong in that the overall coverage, provided by a slew of talented writers, has gotten better in some regards.

But nonetheless, that doesn’t keep me from offering criticism when it is due, and it is due now.

A recent story by staffer Conor Orr, entitled, “Rating Every NFL Coach’s Chances to Survive the 2021 Season,” had the Browns’ Kevin Stefanski ranked only in the middle of the league, 15th of the 32 coaches.

Ugh.

He is rated just behind Mike Zimmer, the former Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator now running the Minnesota Vikings.

Double-ugh.

I think Zimmer is on the hot seat going into next season. The Vikings are headed nowhere fast. They are, in fact, getting worse, not better.

So to put Stefanski behind Zimmer is both surprising, and ridiculous. It just shows Orr’s complete failure to understand Stefanski’s worth to the Browns. He did not win the NFL Coach of the Year award by accident in 2021. He earned it – and then some. Without his steady hand and leadership, the Browns wouldn’t have done nearly as well as they did. Every great team needs a great head coach, and the Browns appear to have a budding one in Stefanski.

Anyway, here’s what Orr wrote about Stefanski:

“Stefanski was the jewel of Browns chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta’s eye for a while, and their first year of marriage alongside GM Andrew Berry proved why. This organization is on the same page and Stefanski’s offense is the perfect fit for Baker Mayfield, who looks more in control and comfortable than at any point in his NFL career. If he can routinely visit the playoffs and develop a long-term quarterback, he’ll have done more than approximately 87 other Browns head coaches have able to do since 1999.”

So, Conor, with all that, then, do you think the Browns are firing Kevin Stefanski anytime soon, or are even getting close to doing it?