CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Last year’s 8-9 finish was Baker Mayfield’s fault.
He was replaced in the offseason with Deshaun Watson.
This time around following a disappointing 7-10 season, it was defensive coordinator Joe Woods who was held accountable.
Woods was fired Sunday night after the Browns lost to the Steelers 28-14 and so the search for Woods’ replacement begins.
“Not an easy decision,” Stefanski said Monday afternoon. “I have a ton of respect for Joe the person and Joe the coach. He is a great, great man. He works extremely hard. He treats people the right way. I just felt like it was the best in the best interest of our football team to go in that direction. He will land on his feet because he is a good football coach.”
Following marked improvement during the season, special teams coordinator Mike Priefer appears to be safe, for now. Stefanski has not made decisions on the rest of the coaching staff just yet.
“I have not had a chance to sit down with every coach,” Stefanski said. “Those are all things that we are working through.”
As is customary with coaching changes, the defensive staff remains intact – for now. Woods’ successor will decide their fate.
Despite returning nine starters, Woods’ defense was rife with breakdowns in the secondary, which reared their ugly head again in the season finale on a 31-yard touchdown from Kenny Pickett to George Pickens – the longest score of the season for the Steelers.
Miscommunication, disorganization along with a lack of discipline and toughness cost Woods his job.
“I believe in our corps of players,” Stefanski said. “Specifically that defensive side of the ball, I think we have a lot of guys who can affect the game, can affect the passer, good in the back end and all of those type of things. We are certainly excited about finding the right person.”
Woods’ unit, which saw the linebacker corps decimated with injury – five players finished the season on injured reserve, struggled mightily to stop the run. Cleveland allowed at least 130 yards rushing by opponents 10 times in their last 14 games, including in Sunday’s loss to the Steelers.
In the secondary, big plays and blown coverages became the norm with the most egregious breakdowns happening in Week 2 against the Jets that saw the Browns blow a 30-17 lead with 1:50 remaining and lose 31-30.
That was on the field.
Off the field, four defensive players, that we know of, were disciplined this year.
Rookie defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey was sent home from practice for the week and inactive. Safety Grant Delpit was sat for one play, denying him a start for an unknown discipline issue. Pro Bowl defensive end Myles Garrett was benched for the first defensive series against New Orleans for failure to properly communicate while having an illness. Then came Jadeveon Clowney, who was left home from the bus trip to Pittsburgh after he left a mushroom cloud on the Browns in an interview.
Plenty of players questioned Woods’ scheme and whether or not they were being put in the best position to succeed throughout the season.
While there were numerous defensive breakdowns to blame on Woods, the Browns had a discipline, attention to detail, belief in what they were doing and respect for authority problem, which is Stefanski’s department.
Stefanski will get a fourth year, but he’s out of fall guys because even with the defensive coordinator change, Stefanski and the Browns aren’t out of the woods just yet.