Does Cleveland Browns HC Kevin Stefanski have anything left to prove?

Alright guys, I personally enjoy listening to the Bill Simmons podcast. I know it's not for everybody. He is not everyone's cup of tea, but he does have some, some pretty interesting conversations and he had Kyle Brant on this week and he ran through with Kyle Brant. Kyle Brant's top five coaching storylines that he's most fascinated by in 2024 Kevin Stefanski and the storyline was part of the top five and we're gonna start with the Stefanski part. They don't want to talk about the other one just because I think it will have some fun with it. So this is Kyle Brandt on why Kevin Stefanski is in his top five of most fascinating storylines to keep an eye on from a coaching perspective in 2025 2024. Excuse me, Steve, let's play the clip. All right, five. I'm gonna go with the reigning coach of the year. Kevin Stefanski, coach of the Cleveland Browns and I'll tell you why. Um, this guy has won coach of the year twice last year. He and Joe Flacco went on this Disney movie run to the playoffs and it was a really cool story there is a complete and utter enigma with Kevin Stansky's quarterback, Deshaun Watson. He has not played a good solid season in four years. His last season that he played was good and healthy was the COVID year with no fans in the stands. And there was real discussion at the end of last season about the Browns have found something with Flacco. This works. They respond to him. His chemistry with Stanski is amazing. Flacco is now gone. I think he's on the Colts and it's like, all right, Deshaun Watson is five years waiting for it. If we talk about the AFC North Bill, it's like, all right, Lamar is the MVP. We're talking more about Russell Wilson and Justin Fields than Deshaun Watson and then Burroughs Bough. So it's like the Browns need to win a playoff game this year. They should, they weren't, well, he showed up with a kind of a shitty attitude to begin with. Yeah. Right. It's like for why he's, he, they spent everything to get him. He's hugely paid. He hasn't accomplished anything since some of these guys were even in the league. And it's like if they mess up in that division, like you could look at six and 11 really, really fast. So I think like, everybody loves to fancy it totally respected by players, obviously, like voters and stuff, but he has to deal with this guy that not everybody respects and that is not only reviled, but just completely mysterious. I don't know if he has it. I don't know if, like, he was a top five guy in 2020. I don't know if he's a top 20. I have no clue. And, like, I think we'll, I'll find out really quickly. They open also. Bill, the Browns week one game is Tom Brady's first call. Like, so he's gonna be talking extensively about Watson and if Watson doesn't play well, Brady's gonna go in on it. It's amazing. The Stansky's at the center of it. All right. I don't have, I actually don't have any problem with anything. He said, uh do you anybody? Oh, the part that stuck out to me was that Sean came here with a terrible attitude. That part I just, you can't put that type of stuff out there though. If you don't really know. I Bill said it that from everything I heard they all loved it. I think Bill is and I don't know, I'm speculating. I think Bill is probably basing that on the, the, the, the interview that Deshawn had at the Greenbrier in the column that I wrote. His answer is based on uh people don't like me and da da da, da da. I think that it wasn't just my column, other people nationally, we picked up on that too. And if I had to guess Simmons is basing that entire comment off that one interview with the I said that was what Simmons said. So I wasn't paying attention to that. What Kyle, the rest of what Kyle Brandt said? No, I have no, I was on point. I don't, I mean, what, what do we do? Is there anything you disagree with that? He said, no, I thought that everything he said was, was accurate. You know, Deshaun has not played as a top five quarterback. Yes, they do need to win a playoff game this year. And Kevin Stanski has shown that dealing with all this other stuff. He's still a really good coach and people are seeing what he's gone through and how he still has had this team successful. Listen, I have not heard one person say anything negative about Kevin. He seems like the most easy going genuine guy. You know, people think that he's cocky and the number one thing that people would say is he won't give up, he won't get out of his own way. He don't trust nobody with the plays and I don't think that's the case. I just think that they have a rhythm and he's in rhythm right now and he feels like the things that he's doing is successful. He feels like, I think he feels that he gets the best out of his quarterbacks. It's best when he's calling the play because he understands the quarterback's limitation. He understands what they like to do. He understands what they're good at. He understands how they will thrive in certain situations. And I think that's why he wants to be the one that caused those plays. And yeah, it was a time, a couple of years ago where we were questioning some of the things that he did. But last year, that kind of was put to bed a little bit like everybody was kind of behind some of the things that he was doing. And as long as he got the Johns and the Joe to do it, he'll be successful. Ty is the system that Kevin stas has run the last two years play action. Is it, is it good for Deshaun Watson? I think he has to be more open to it. Just think about this. I think about it. Is it a good, any system that Kevin has run has been successful for whatever quarterback has been willing to do what Kevin's done. We heard you Flacco last year. They was like, Joe, how are you making all these great plays? He said, talk to Kevin Kevin, here's what I would say. And again, this is coming from someone who has been a huge Kevin defender and supporter defender when people were being critical in past years and supporter the whole time, the best coaches adjust their system to the players, not the other way around. That's a fact that's how that's what happened with ball and Josh Allen and I don't know that we've discussed this at all, but there has to be some criticism of Kevin Stefanski for that. Well, that's what they're doing this year. I was about to say, why do you think that's exactly what they're doing? But we haven't seen it yet. We heard last year the offense was going to be different and it wasn't, well, maybe that's why they went and maybe that's what the overhaul on the offensive staff was about. You can't fire Kevin because I'm not saying Kevin's great. He's a great play caller, but Kevin probably spent last year trying to come up with stuff with Deshaun and it just, it didn't work. So it was like, well, insanity would be just running back with that same office as that. Well, we're not going to fire Kevin because he's a great coach. Everybody loves him and the things that he's done. So what we're going to do is we're going to get people that fit more to what Deshaun does. Let's see it the way Deshaun does. And I don't blame Deshaun for this because he's been in the spread pretty much his entire career. Clemson was the spread, Bill o'brien at Texas and with the Texans was the spread. That's just what he knows. And that's where he made his money and to some degree, I get it. Maybe Kevin thought initially that even though Deshaun Watson hadn't run this kind of offense that in his mind, if Deshaun got it down, that he would thrive in this offense, it was probably his premise but it hasn't worked and part of its injuries, it's on both of them because I do think at some point Deshaun should have been a little bit more. I'm not saying that he wasn't. But clearly when they went to meet with Deshaun Kevin and Deshaun had a film session and I'm sure Kevin was like, listen, I'm going to show you these plays right here. This is what you're going to look like. And when you think about it, it's a play action boo team. You think about Deshaun Watson? All right, we're going to run the ball to Nick Chubb. These defenses are going to start biting on Nick Chubb. Now we're going to turn it into a play action. You got your tight end on the over route, you can hit David Naoko and they going to start what's going to happen is now these linebackers are going to start playing that if they playing that nobody's playing you. So you got the legs, pick up the thing. We should always be pushing the chains forward no matter what, we should get the chains moving forward. And I don't know, maybe last year that it just didn't happen like that. And then like you say, injuries played a part of it and he was like, you know what, I just, I just like the shotgun. I just, it's something about me being in five wide, controlling everything and seeing everything fast that I would just react fast. I can get the ball out of my hands. I can make things happen with my legs. That's just who I am. And he just couldn't figure out how to get back into that under center play action. Maybe it was boring him. I don't know. I'm not saying if it's right or wrong, but clearly there was something there, it would be insanity to go out there and run the same stuff. I'm not saying that they won't do it because Kevin's still got his hand on some of this stuff, but you still need to make your quarterback be as much as comfortable as he is and put him back in the system that he thrives the most if you want him to get back to being that guy and I think this front office has done everything they can to do that play, excuse me, play action is more effective. Understand the shotgun. That's a fact. Can you still do it? You run it? It's more rpo though. It would be more effective when you run that RPO. You get that linebacker to step up. See now he got to step up to it and if he step up, now you pull it and you could throw the ball behind him and that's where he thrived the RPO systems, which I'm sure when we talked to Zach on Tuesday, he was like a lot of the stuff is short, quick game throws. Well, they better put RPO in it so you can get that linebacker out there, throw the ball behind him. You got Jerry Judy Amari Cooper, Elijah Moore, all these guys thrive with yards after catch. So get the ball in their hands, let them be an athlete and get pick up those yards those ways. But the run game got to be a Jerome Ford and Deontay Foreman got to be effective because if the linebackers don't respect the run, they're not stepping up to nothing, which is a big part where that's where the mix up being kind of scares me the, the first year they were together. I think you just have to throw that out because the suspension, they knew they knew they, they knew it was gonna be a suspension of some sort. It wound up being even more than they first I think were anticipating, throw that out that entire season last year. I do think that it was Kevin trying to get Deshawn to buy in a little bit more to under center play action. And II I, no one will ever convince me otherwise that the success that Flacco had running the system played a part in them blowing the whole thing up and it may sound counterintuitive, but I, no, I get it because they said, oh, Watson just can't do this. It was clear after Flacco was able to pick it up that quickly that, that Watson was not capable of doing that. And it was, and, and it was also, yes, I, I'll, I'm not, yeah, you're right. And, and, and so I just think that they finally felt like, listen, we've invested all this money in this guy. Let's do everything we can to do it his way and, and that's not, it's not necessarily the wrong route to take. Like, I agree. Like you have to do it this way and it's probably the best route to success and hopefully they can have the success. But I, I will be interested to see and I think he nailed it with the RPO thing. 11 of Kevin's biggest tenets of his offense is play action like he loves to run, play action. So how do you marry Kevin's want for play action with Deshaun skill set RPO is the obvious answer. So if they, if they can marry those two, you could have a really explosive offense. We'll see, which is, which is what may think about the Eagles with Jalen Hurtz before. What's the Colts coach name, Shane Ste before he left? That's what helped Jalen Hurts. Get back. They went and got a bunch of athletes, big rpo team. He was very successful with those. So what do you think it should look like if you want an idea what it might look like? Go back and watch the Eagles when Shane Stein was there, go watch the Colts from last year when Anthony Richardson was in. You get those athletic quarterbacks that RPO because if you fake, fake the run and you don't want to throw that you can still take off with your little Lamar. Obviously, even Lamar with Jay Daniels, so it's a big component and I'm going to tell you right now for a nickel, I've played and I've been around linebackers, that RPO stuff. It puts you in a bind. It really does because the one that gets you the most, it ain't even the slant that kill you. It's when they run them. Speed outs from the inside. Oh my goodness. Because your linebacker is going in. So the next person that's got to check it is the safety that's over the top. And if he runs an out, you got to come down, angle tackle, which is hard in space, but these guys got to make plays, the receivers got to make plays after the catch, but it starts with the fear of the run game. Yes. If you know, fear to run, I'm not, why would the linebacker step in? Does it matter the style of runner? Because I'm thinking like Nick versus Jerome, when Nick's back, it doesn't matter the style of run. You just have to fear the back. Yes. Yeah. I mean, obviously you would fear maybe the bigger back. If it was Derek Henry, you better get down there because he going to run me over. But if this is shift you back, I mean, you can still get who who in the hole. So you still got to go in there and close the space. That's how you stop athletes, you close the space and give them no room, man. I feel like I need to be back on the board. Eric Henry is gonna be uh a scary in Baltimore with Lamar. Hey, real quick before we give you the rest of the top five. How much does quick decision making and processing play into the RPO style of offense? You have to be on point, you super quick and decisive. Yeah, it's about, it's just reads, like I said, you usually read in that front side linebacker and that's kind of where you, you go from there, you do a progression from there. But if you're doing, if you're running the ball and it's like if it's an option, like if you can pull it, obviously that DN is going to be the one to tell you that tackle, he's going to go up the field, let that DN come down, he's going to go up and try to seal a linebacker off which you're reading that DN. If that DN crashes down on the running back, you pull it and go around. But if that DN plays, you, you let the ball go and then that's how you do it. If it's a pass, then it turns into the linebacker. Now you're reading that front side linebacker. If he steps up, throw the ball behind him if he doesn't step up, give the ball off. So it's really, it kind of simplifies a lot of things, but you read like one or two people. All right, Mikey. So there were Kyle Brand had five, you know, burning questions or whatever. It was just his five most fascinating coach storylines, Stefanski. And can he make it work with? The song? Was number five the other, I'm just gonna tell you guys what it is. If you want to talk about any of them, we can talk about it for a sec. Uh Number four, he talked about Jim Harbaugh coming back to Los Angeles and being heralded as a God. Well, you gotta prove you're as good as the hype and the expectations are in year one. Mike Tomlin, can you win a damn playoff game with his exact words you've gotten there? You're over 500 Steelers fans don't want 500. They want playoff wins. Robert Sala was number two. Are you a good coach? There's no statistical evidence that states you're a good coach. You've got an extra year now, you have all the pieces and the talent on the roster. Are you a good NFL coach? We'll get that answer. And number one, Mike mcdaniel, is it all flash and no substance? Will it actually work when you have to win or is it just a fun storyline that's gonna win you some regular season games? But come playoff time? It will fail and crumble in catastrophic fashion. So those are the five storylines he thought were most interesting from a coaching perspective. You wanna touch on any of the other ones real quick. I think they're all the Tomlin thing doesn't really do anything, anything Tom doesn't do it for me. The, the three are all interesting. I think he missed a big one in Nick Ceriani. Thank you because I don't think I'm not, I don't think Nick Ceriani is going to be the coach from now. The Super Bowl was the darling to look to raccoon eyes in the hot seat. I don't know what's happening any time. The front office fires your OC and your DC. You next. I mean, think about it. That's what happened with the Chargers with Brandon Staley. You know, they fired the OC and the DC stuff didn't change. The next thing was him. So Ceriani is very much in that category. I would, I would take Tomlin off that list. That doesn't excite me. I think the Harbaugh thing is interesting. I think everybody's just assuming that the Chargers will be really good, but look at their skill positions, they probably have the worst skill position talent in the league. Their number one running back is Gus Edwards or JK Dobbins. I mean, he's never been able to stay healthy. Go buck who's their number one wide receiver, Josh Palmer? I mean, he's a rookie, so maybe he's going to be good. I don't know. I mean, he seems like he's one of those possession receivers. He can make plays, they gonna run the ball anyways. I mean, it's Jim Harbaugh, they want to run the ball. How do you have Justin Herbert and not give him? Well, everybody thinks they're going to run a ton this year. But again, how do you have Justin Herbert? Maybe it goes consider Kevin Stanski, you fear to run first and then it opens up, it clears the pitcher for Justin Herbert. I mean, Michigan crap aside, I think Jim Harbaugh is a really good coach, so I'm sure he's going to figure it out, but it's just kind of interesting that Justin Herbert might be the quarterback who has talked about the most who has produced the least 100% or Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence. I've, the shine is off Trevor Lawrence as far as I'm concerned, that's just me. I've never been a big Lawrence fan. I was never a big Lawrence fan. Uh, the what else? Yeah, the mcdaniel thing is fair. They've kind of flamed out at the end of the season, the last two years. Did you see the meme going around of him talking about Tyreek Hill? No, Miami Drug Lord. That's good too. First day. Best buy, associate manager, assistant manager now, Miami Kingpin two years in Miami can do anything to anyone that was his. There's also a video of him, I don't know. How they did this A I or whatever of him talking about the 82 baby mamas that Tyree kill. Let me tell you a I it's, it is sturb, it caught me like a couple of weeks ago I got trapped in something that I thought was real and I said it to a couple of people. I'm like, what you look at this and then it was like, oh, never mind. I say its gonna get the Robert solid thing. I mean, what do you think about Robert Soli? That TYS? Great, fantastic coach, coach. He's a great coach, great storyteller, great motivator. I really believe that the Jets are going to pull it around. I'm pulling for Robert. So it's a very genuine, authentic guy that a lot of people would play for. So have no beef with Robert. Really cheering Cleveland runner up in Cleveland for that job. And I'm sorry y'all, I'm fired up. My homeboy just won his case and he just w we got a case. He just won his case.