Why Browns’ Kevin Stefanski deserves to be this season’s Coach of the Year

I begin my praise of Browns coach Kevin Stefanski by going full Stefanski and blocking any ounce of personal spotlight or compliments the way Cleveland’s five different starting offensive tackles have taken on opposing rushers.

Is Stefanski doing a great job? Absolutely. Is he interested in discussing anything more than his team’s Wednesday morning walk-through and the details involved with trying to defeat the Houston Texans? Absolutely not.

No one inside the Browns’ training facility cares who wins the NFL’s Coach of the Year honor. Come Sunday, there are no bonus points awarded for any individual honor or celebration of past accomplishments. The 9-5 Browns are on the doorstep of the playoffs and are putting together what might be their best season in more than 15 years, but any loss of focus on this week’s game and the immediate task at hand could cause the Browns to lose momentum and the lead they hold on the rest of the AFC’s wild-card chasers.

Still, Stefanski has been really good. As good as the Browns have seen or had in a long time, and as good as any of his peers across the league. He’s not interested in discussing a Coach of the Year candidacy, but his would start with this: Eight teams enter Week 16 with nine or more wins. Seven of those eight have had the same starting quarterback for all 14 games.

Still, Stefanski has been really good. As good as the Browns have seen or had in a long time, and as good as any of his peers across the league. He’s not interested in discussing a Coach of the Year candidacy, but his would start with this: Eight teams enter Week 16 with nine or more wins. Seven of those eight have had the same starting quarterback for all 14 games.

The Browns are the first team since 2015 and just the seventh in the Super Bowl era to win a game with four different starting quarterbacks in the same season. All four have led a last-minute drive that’s set up winning points.

Two of those four quarterbacks have started games while playing on practice squad elevations. Fifth-round rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson has started three games. No other team called 16-year veteran Joe Flacco before the Browns added him to their practice squad on Nov. 19; Flacco has started the last three games, won the last two and threw for 212 yards in the fourth quarter alone on Sunday. That’s the most by any player in any fourth quarter this season.

Flacco engineered that fourth-quarter comeback while playing behind an offensive line that was without four opening-day starters, had to replace Pro Bowl guard Joel Bitonio during the game and even had to briefly replace second-string center Nick Harris in the fourth quarter. Harris has spent much of the season playing as the Browns’ short-yardage fullback, a role Stefanski created when circumstances forced him to lean on the heavy-personnel sets he’d hoped to get away from this season.

The best coaches are adaptable. Stefanski’s been that — and his team has, too. He’s the first to say he doesn’t do it alone, though he’d prefer to just say nothing. Week by week, the Browns keep sorting through their list of available players, their library of what seems like a thousand screen passes and their ever-changing personnel groupings on both sides of the ball. The offseason was about getting Deshaun Watson ready to lead a more open offense. Watson played three games in September, made it one quarter against the Indianapolis Colts in October, then had two strong November games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. One quarterback injury has sunk the playoff chances of a bunch of teams, this season and in those of the recent past.