Kevin Stefanski's fourth year as Cleveland Browns coach: 'Culture starts to build'

HOUSTON — Kevin Stefanski's first season as a head coach couldn't have come in a more challenging time.

Stefanski was hired in mid-January 2020. By mid-March, the COVID-19 pandemic had essentially shut everything down in terms of in-person contact, including in the NFL.

Once the season started, contact remained limited, and player availability was a day-to-day matter. It's not exactly the best circumstances for a coach to walk into a new organization.

And, yet, the Browns went 11-5 that season and made just the franchise's second playoff appearance since returning in 1999. Although Stefanski had to miss the wild-card round win over the Pittsburgh Steelers because he had COVID, he was back on the sideline when the season ended with a AFC divisional loss at the Kansas City Chiefs.

That year, Stefanski won the NFL Coach of the Year award. Now, three years later, he's once again among the favorites for that award after a season that, while not a direct apples-to-apples comparison, can come close enough.

"Good coaches can round out the roller coaster nature which is the NFL, right?" Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said before the regular-season finale at the Cincinnati Bengals. "You're going to have highs. You're going to have lows over the course of the season. You want to be the person that can level out those. … I think players take a lot of confidence in Kevin's confidence and his ability to handle all these different situations."

This season, the Browns and Stefanski have once again navigated a strange season in which player availability was a constant battle, this time due to injuries instead of COVID. However, they still managed to finish the regular season 11-6 and will play an AFC wild card game at the Houston Texans (10-7) at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Stefanski, who's loathe to talk about himself in public, wouldn't take the bait when he was asked how he's learned from that first season.

"I think for all of us as coaches, I would tell you every experience you're trying to gain something from," Stefanski said this week. "So you learn from wins, you learn from losses. So every experience — games on the road, games in prime time, those type of things — I think all of them you learn from."

The difference between the first year for a head coach and his fourth is a massive one. That's especially true in a locker room, where a group of alpha males are balancing commitment to their teammates with their own personal goals, both in the game and financially.

The journey between year one and year four for Stefanski has shown times when that message has struggled to take hold. Both year two and year three had some kind of internal conflict that managed to get out, such as the Odell Beckham Jr.-Baker Mayfield spat or Jadaveon Clowney's frustrations.

This season, however, no such public displays have existed. More than anything, there had never been more of a lock-step in message between head coach and players, maybe in the last 25 years of Browns football.

"I think coming in as a coach and you have your message, your culture that you want to try and instill in the guys, and it takes time for that to get in," guard Joel Bitonio said. "But once you start seeing results of what you're saying, you talk about being resilient, you talk about being 1-0, you talk about focusing on the task at hand and playing with the guys that we have. But then you start winning games and results are still positive. I think that culture starts to build."

The winning or the culture? Which one truly came first this season under Stefanski?

The first signs of a potential on-field problems came in Week 2, when the heart and soul of the team, running back Nick Chubb, suffered a season-ending knee injury in a disappointing loss at the Steelers. Two weeks later, the questions about quarterback Deshaun Watson's shoulder emerged, and they lingered into November.

The Browns were 2-2 at the Week 5 bye, boasting a dominant defense and an offense with massive questions at quarterback and running back. Yet, that's where they also took off, beating the San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts in back-to-back weeks coming out of the break to start a stretch of five wins in six games.

By the time quarterback Joe Flacco was signed to the practice squad on Nov. 20, the Browns were 7-3. More important, they had seen the "just go 1-0 this week" mantra Stefanski repeats reward them on Sundays.

"I think guys in the locker room have bought in, bought into Coach Stefanski and the coaches and what they're preaching," Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward said. "I think that's huge right there. Yeah, he's been preaching that and getting us to go 1-0, and that's been a main focus. And, like I said, we believe in him, I believe in what he's coaching us to do and it is showing out there on the field."

It's also showing a different side of himself at times. Stefanski could be characterized as stoic, almost emotionless, when he was seen on the sidelines, a perspective that wasn't just a sports-talk radio topic.

This season, there have been moments when the "emotionless" Stefanski has actually been quite emotional. One of the more prominent examples came in a Week 14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

On a fourth-and-3 call from the Jaguars 41, Flacco found wide receiver David Bell for a 41-yard touchdown to open a 14-point lead. And, as Bell was running toward the end zone, Stefanski was seen high-stepping down the sideline.

It's not just in those displays. It's the emotion Stefanski has also shown inside the locker room, in talking to players individually or as a group.

"What I can say is that from the time he first got here till now, the emotion is there," tight end David Njoku said during the week leading up to the Browns' Week 16 win over the Texans. "I feel like that's what the team needed was that emotion. He really shows it and we really feed off of it."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.mbeaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kevin Stefanski's fourth year as Browns coach epitomizes 'culture'