The iconic Bill Parcells had — and still has, because he is alive and well and remains very much relevant in today’s game with his logic, perspective, common sense and truisms — that great quote about NFL teams: “You are what your record says you are.”
Indeed, pro football is a bottom-line business — either you win or you don’t; you don’t get feel-good points for close losses and you don’t get feel-bad points for close wins, for they all count the same in the standings — but that extends beyond the scores of the games themselves. Included, too, in that adage are head coaches and general managers — and as such with that, then, organizations overall, since those guys are the chief decision-makers other than the owner — in that, “You are what your decisions say you are.”
This year’s Browns are 2-6, so . . .
Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski inherited Baker Mayfield when he arrived in 2020 and after the great, rags-to-riches story of making the playoffs in that season for the first time in 18 years, things deteriorated when Stefanski, for some boneheaded reason still unknown, allowed the quarterback to continue to play when he was hurt. The results were not good, which caused the Browns to decide they needed to find another passer.
Bad decision.
The Browns targeted Deshaun Watson as the guy they wanted, so they went after him full-go, trading three first-round NFL Draft picks to get him and then giving him a contract worth more than the GNP of some small Third World countries.
Bad decision.
When Watson was lost to injury in 2023, the Browns played one mediocre quarterback and then another before signing and playing Joe Flacco, but only after they had no other choice because of injures.
Bad decision for waiting so long — almost too long.
After Flacco turned around the Browns immediately and landed them an improbable spot in the postseason, the club didn’t re-sign him and instead allowed him to walk in free agency after he was ready, willing and able to stay in Cleveland in a place he grew to love and with a team — a former hated division rival, don’t you know — he grew to love.
Bad decision.
Despite the fact Watson struggled mightily in the first half of 2024, dragging thickoffense and the team overall down with him, Stefanski kept refusing to bench him or to give up his own playcalling duties.
Bad decision.
When Watson was lost for the season due to injury two weeks ago, Stefanski looked past Jameis Winston, who had been relegated to third-string for some inexplicable reason after being by far the team’s best quarterback in training camp and the preseason , in favor of young Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who threw two interceptions in relief. Winston was inserted only after DTR got hurt.
Bad decision. Shouldn’t the best players play? Well, yeah, certainly.
After Winston threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns as the Browns ended their five-game losing streak by stunning the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday, and with offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey calling the plays following his finally being handed those duties for the rest of the season by the head coach, Stefanski donned his Captain Obvious costume for Halloween and went way out on the limb to reveal that he had named Winston the starter for Sunday’s visit by the former San Diego Super Chargers.
Wow! Newsflash! Stop the presses!! Gee, Coach S, don’t go crazy on us now.
How absurd — yet so telling!
Ladies and gentlemen, when you make bad decisions at right guard, weak-side linebacker, strong safety, long snapper and the like, you get your knuckles cracked with a ruler by a nun. The punishment is limited, because those decisions, while all negatives, aren’t deal-killers.
But, when you make bad decisions at quarterback, which is by far — it’s not even close — the most important position in team sports, for when you have a good one you have a chance and when you don’t, you don’t — they call in the pastor to hand out serious punishment because this is a serious sin and it can set a franchise back years.
There is a pattern here, and it’s not good. The pattern needs to change, and if it doesn’t, then the people responsible — this means you, too, haughty General Manager Andrew Berry — run the risk of eventually being changed.
Look, I don’t want — and nobody wants — to see Stefanski and Berry get fired because they’ve otherwise done a good job for the Browns, but let’s be clear and brutally honest in stating emphatically that these quarterback problems absolutely, positively have to stop — and now, this moment, this instant.
Or else.
Like some former Browns owner, current owner Jimmy Haslam will have no choice.
Steve King
