Kevin Stefanski Announces Stunning Offensive Change For Browns

The Cleveland Browns are expected to start Jameis Winston at quarterback amidst the season-ending injury to Deshaun Watson

Oct 13, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski on the sidelines against the Philadelphia Eagles during the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Major changes are coming to the Cleveland Browns offense in Week 8, and not just at the quarterback position.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski opened up the week of practice announcing that Jameis Winston would assume the starting quarterback duties against the Baltimore Ravens this week after losing Deshaun Watson for the season with a torn Achilles. In a more stunning decision, the Browns head man shared that he was passing off the play calling to offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey as well.

Stefanski shared the the decision was "fully his," but it is a stunning revelation revelation nonetheless. Since his arrival to Cleveland in 2020, Stefanski has always served as the team's primary play caller, on top of handling his responsibilities as a head coach on game day.

For all intents and purposes, the Deshaun Watson era came to an unceremonious end on Sunday. The writing of the next chapter of #Browns football is officially underway.https://t.co/bAWSJZYbYc

— 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@Spencito_) October 21, 2024

When the team hired Dorsey this past offseason, Stefanski did suggest that he flirted with the handing off play-calling responsibilities to the former Bills OC while they worked together to build an offense better suited for the now injured Watson. Ultimately, Stefanski announced on the first day of training camp that he would keep those duties himself as he had done the previous two seasons.

With the Browns sitting at 1-6 and boasting the worst offense in football, Stefanski called the move the right thing for the team at this juncture of the season.

"I'm just always looking at what we can do to just be a little bit better, and truth is we have to be better on offense," Stefanski explained. Coach Dorsey is somebody that I rely on very heavily and I just feel like this is the right thing for the team."

When the Browns decided to hire Dorsey last winter it was done with the hope that he'd be able to tap into Watson's full skill set and unlock his full potential in a re-imagined offense. Dorsey has a history of working with some of the best dual threat QBs in football having coached Cam Newton during his time in Carolina from 2013-2017 and then working closely with Josh Allen in Buffalo from 2019-2023.

Unfortunately, the first seven games of the Dorsey-Stefanski blended offense have been anything but smooth. On top of struggles from the offensive line and numerous dropped passes from wide receivers, Watson's inconsistent play has also been an ongoing problem. With the 29-year-old now done for the season, it appears Stefanski is looking to trigger some sort of spark with the move to Dorsey as primary play caller.

Meanwhile, Stefanski shared that 2023 fifth-round pick Dorian-Thompson Robinson, who was serving as the primary backup to Watson last week, avoided surgery to his injured hand. He sustained the ailment late in the fourth quarter of the team's loss to Cincinnati. He is expected to practice Wednesday, but Stefanski said he needs to see Thompson-Robinson throw the ball to really get a sense of the severity of the injury.