Cleveland Browns Announce Contract Extension for Stefanski and Berry

On Wednesday, the Cleveland Browns announced that they were signing both their General Manager Andrew Berry and Head Coach Kevin Stefanski to contract extensions. The details of the deals like length and monetary value have not yet been released at time of writing.

via @Browns/X

The duo were both hired on in 2020, and since then have produced some of the best performing seasons the franchise has seen since its reintroduction back into the league in 1999.

Stefanski has been a polarizing figure to football fans, with some praising his ability to pull the team out of its injury troubles last year, being able to take a battered Browns team to the playoffs. Since taking over the team, Stefanski has a 37-30 regular season record and taken the team to the playoffs twice, winning their first playoff game ever in 2020 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Stefanski also won the AP Coach of the Year two times during his tenure, first in 2020 and his most recent being in 2023.

Berry has been able to build this team from a consistent bottom five team in the league to a team that is constantly in the hunt for playoff contention. The Amari Cooper trade for example is one of his best moves of his tenure, and his draft history has brought some great players to the franchise like linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr.

However, the legacy of these two may still be up in the air as many put their success on the success of play of Quarterback Deshaun Watson. The team gave the Houston Texans three first-round picks to trade for the star quarterback, who was in a legal dispute at the time. They would extend Watson immediately to a massive five-year deal, giving him a record setting $230 million fully guaranteed.

Watson so far has not panned out as well as they had hoped, only playing 12 games over the two years he has been on the team with suspensions and injuries limiting his time on the field.