The 2020 NFL season was the most successful Browns’ season in almost three decades.   Coming off a 6-10 season in 2019, new head coach Kevin Stefanski led a very successful turnaround, earning him Coach of the Year honors. Not only was it the most wins in a single season for the Browns since 1994, it was one of the best single-season improvements for a new head coach since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002.   Stefanski’s first season was only the eighth time since 2002 that a new head coach won a playoff game after improving a team five or more wins.   How did Stefanski lead the Browns to the playoffs?  By leaning into his strengths: offense.   Prior to Cleveland, Stefanski spent his entire NFL coaching career on the offensive side of the ball for the Minnesota Vikings, working up to the Vikings offensive coordinator in 2019.   In his single season as…

This blog started way back in 2002, one wild ride of a season, which featured the last Browns playoff team. Until now. Second-year coach Butch Davis' pro peak started with Dwayne Rudd serving up a Kansas City win in the form of an ill-advised celebratory helmet toss just before the end of what should've been the game's last play. Still, that 40-39 heartbreaker seemed to confirm that Cleveland, in its fourth year of the reincarnation, was emerging into a potent bunch. After all, it was backup Kelly Holcomb who lit up the Chiefs for 326 yards and three TDs in just his second career start. That squad's strength was its wide receiving unit, sporting a slew of second-round draft picks collectively known as the Four Deuces. Three of them (Dennis Northcutt, Andre Davis, and Quincy Morgan) scored in that memorable opener, and the fourth (Kevin Johnson) threw a TD pass on a…

In the NFL, any team can beat any other team on a given Sunday. However, when one club has playoff aspirations and another is mired in the muck of the NFL basement with the second-worst record in the league, we would presume the former would have little trouble with the latter. However, that’s not how it went down in Week 12 as the Cleveland Browns barely escaped the clutches of the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 27-25 victory. The win was clinched by Cleveland’s defense thwarting a two-point conversion attempt by the Jaguars after they drew to within two points, courtesy of a James Robinson four-yard scamper into the end zone with two minutes and change left on the clock. Cleveland guard Joel Bitonio put it all into perspective after the game: It definitely was one where you see the grit of a team. You don't get a practice all week really, the defense…