You know what a pain in the brain it is to be slowed by road construction for weeks, but once the project is complete and traffic flows smoothly it’s as if the orange barrels were never there?
Orange barrels and detour signs figuratively marked the Browns front office in Berea for most of the years from 1999 to 2019 — hire a general manager, hire a coach, tear down the roster, suffer back-to-back losing seasons and then do it all over again with a different G.M., a different head coach, another batch of assistant coaches, another roster rebuild and two more losing seasons.
The front office at 76 Lou Groza Boulevard is no longer a construction zone, and, not coincidentally, the Browns are heading to the playoffs for the second time in four years. They finished the 2023 regular season 11-5 and will face Texans in Houston in a wild-card playoff game on Jan. 13. Kickoff is 4:30 p.m.
Credit for bringing stability to the Browns front office goes to Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta and to team owner Jimmy Haslam for having the vision to hire DePodesta away from the baseball New York Mets in 2016.
DePodesta in 2020 orchestrated the union of Kevin Stefanski as head coach and Andrew Berry as general manager/president of football operations. Stefanski, offensive coordinator of the Vikings in 2019, was hired on Jan. 13 nearly four years ago, just two days after Minnesota was eliminated from the NFC playoffs.
Berry was hired as GM two weeks later for a second stint with the Browns. Berry was originally hired in 2016 to be the Browns vice president of personnel — the same year DePodesta was hired. Sashi Brown was hired as general manager and Hue Jackson as head coach as part of the 2016 makeover to replace GM Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine. Farmer and Pettine lasted only two seasons.
Brown was fired before the 2017 season ended and replaced by John Dorsey. Jackson was fired midway through 2018 after posting an illustrious record of 3-36-1 record. Gregg Williams replaced Jackson as interim head coach and was fired after the 2018 season despite going 6-2 with a team that was 6-49-1 in 3 1/2 seasons before Williams took over. Prior to Pettine, Eric Mangini and Pat Shurmur were each fired after two seasons as head coach.
So, yeah, a lot of orange barrels.
DePodesta wanted to hire Stefanski in 2019, but Dorsey overruled him and promoted Freddie Kitchens to head coach. Kitchens began 2018 as the running backs coach. He was promoted to offensive coordinator when Jackson was fired and worked so well with rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield (Dorsey selected Mayfield with the first pick of the 2018 draft) that Dorsey figured Kitchens was ready to be a head coach. Kitchens was not ready.
Berry left the Browns in 2019 to take a job as vice president of football operations with the Eagles. Dorsey and Kitchens were fired after 2019 and then DePodesta put his dream team of Berry-Stefanski together.
When the 2024 season ends, assuming Berry and Stefansk are still a duo, they will have been together longer than any Browns combo since 1978 to mid-1984 when Peter Hadhazy was general manager and Sam Rutigilano was head coach. Hadhazy began his tenure as general manager in 1974 when Nick Skorich was head coach.
Berry has the last word on roster configuration. He and Stefanski might not always agree, but if there have been disagreements I have no idea what they were.
What I do know for sure is the egos of Berry and Stefanski would fit on the head of the same pin with plenty of room to spare. It is why they work so well together. Each is quick to credit the other for team success.
Not every decision by Berry has turned out well, but he has hit more solid doubles than whiffed. He hit a home run when he signed Joe Flacco, and Stefanski along with offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt have done an excellent job tailoring game plans to suit Flacco’s strength as an accurate deep passer,
The Browns traded six draft picks to the Texans for Deshaun Watson and then agreed to pay Watson a fully-guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract. Watson played in 12 games and threw 14 touchdown passes over the first two years of the contract — one more TD pass than Flacco has in five games.
We’ll never know who first had the idea to push for the Watson trade, knowing Watson’s reputation was ruined because more than two dozen massage therapists accused him of sexual misconduct but making the trade anyway. It’s the kind of splash move Haslam would like — Haslam had to offer the unprecedented $230 million to make it work — or maybe it was Podesta’s idea.
Whatever the case on Watson, Berry and Stefanski have combined to put the Browns into the playoffs for the second time in four years. The last time that happened was when with Ernie Accorsi as general manager, Marty Schottenheimer as head coach and Bernie Kosar as quarterback the Browns made the playoffs each year from 1985 to 1988.
The 2024 season will be the fifth and final year of the original contracts Berry and Stefanski signed with the Browns.
What a difference it is to be looking forward to contract extensions instead of more front-office construction plans.