The Cleveland Browns have fired head coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons, the team announced on Monday morning.
The Browns finished the 2025 season with a 5-12 record and in last-place in the AFC North. It was their fourth losing season under Stefanski.
“We have tremendous gratitude for Kevin’s leadership of the Cleveland Browns over the last six seasons,” Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam said Monday in a statement. “He is a good football coach and an even better person. We appreciate all his hard work and dedication to our organization but our results over the last two seasons have not been satisfactory, and we believe a change at the head coaching position is necessary.”
The Browns also announced that Andrew Berry, who arrived in Cleveland with Stefanski in 2020, will remain in his position as general manager.
“The entirety of our focus is on building a team that brings our fans the success they long deserve, and we will continue to work relentlessly towards that goal and invest whatever resources necessary to build a winning football program,” the Haslams said. “Andrew will immediately begin our thorough process to find an outstanding new head coach and leader of our football team. We have an exciting young core to build upon, and Andrew and his team are intent on adding talent to this core and building out a roster that can achieve sustainable success.”
The decision to fire Stefanski was made two seasons after he won his second NFL Coach of the Year award and less than two years after he received a contract extension.
From 2020 to 2023, Stefanski led the Browns to two playoff appearances including a playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020. But Cleveland has struggled over the past two seasons with a combined record of 8-26. This season marked the Browns’ fourth losing season under Stefanski.
“After six seasons as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, I leave with an immense sense of gratitude,” Stefanski said in a statement released by the team. “When I arrived in January of 2020, this organization, this community and Browns fans embraced me and my family with open arms. I cannot express properly in words how good we have been treated. A sincere ‘Thank You’ to everyone who I have been so blessed to work for and with over these six seasons. I’d like to especially thank my coaching staff and the players who did everything that was ever asked of them. They fought through injury and adversity, while always putting the TEAM FIRST. I wish all of you nothing but success.”
Stefanski finishes his Browns tenure with a 45-56 regular season record.
He won his first Coach of the Year award in 2020 following a season in which the Browns defeated the Steelers in the wild-card round of the playoffs, the franchise’s first postseason victory since 1994. Stefanski was not on the sideline for the game and was unable to coach after testing positive for COVID-19. He won his second Coach of the Year award for helping guide Cleveland back to the playoffs in 2023 despite a litany of injuries, which forced the team to start five different quarterbacks.
The Browns will now embark on another head coaching search, which will be their 11th since 1999. As for Stefanski, he’s expected to be a top candidate on market, with interest from the New York Giants.
