Story by
Kevin Stefanski's offense, Deshaun Watson, left tackle top Browns' 2024 season takeaways
- Story by
- Kevin Stefanski's offense, Deshaun Watson, left tackle top Browns' 2024 season takeaways
It's been about a half-week's time since the Browns ' dismal 3-14 season came to a fitting conclusion with a loss at the Baltimore Ravens last Saturday.
In that time, several of the Browns' key players, as well as two of the main characters in shaping the franchise's present and future — general manager Andrew Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski — have had their turns behind the microphone answering questions. Beyond that, there have been major developments that are going to have significant impacts on next season, and likely well beyond.
Advertisement
On Sunday morning, the Browns fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and offensive line coach Andy Dickerson. That afternoon, the New England Patriots won and the Tennessee Titans lost, locking Cleveland into the No. 2 overall pick in April's draft.
Then, on Monday, Berry dropped a bombshell that quarterback Deshaun Watson had a setback in his recovery from Achilles surgery. Berry didn't go into specifics, including the severity of the setback, but it's certainly going to be something that'll hang over the organization going forward.
Those were just the major headline-drawing things to emerge. There were plenty of other items to come out of the last public comments from organization members for the 2024 season.
Here are a few takeaways from what Berry, Stefanski and the players said to wrap up the season:
Advertisement
Is it back to the future with the Cleveland Browns offense?
Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski talks with field judge Ryan Dickson (25) during a game against the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 29, 2024, in Cleveland.
That's what offensive linemen Jack Conklin and Joel Bitonio would like to see — a return to the Stefanski-style offense featuring a wide-zone running game coupled with a dangerous play-action passing game. It's what was successful for the Browns over his first four seasons as head coach.
The Browns seemed to indicate that with the hire of Mike Bloomgren to replace Dickerson as the offensive line coach. He has ties to former line coach Bill Callahan, while his background also includes coordinating the power run-based offenses at Stanford University that featured Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love .
Advertisement
The move to Dorsey was clearly done in an attempt to unlock Watson, which just as clearly didn't work over the first seven games before the injury. Conklin was blunt when he said Sunday "creating around an individual makes things tough for everybody else. So I think you got to stick with what this team's been built around, and if we can do that I think we can have a lot of success with that part of it."
That's why the next offensive coordinator is seen as someone who can, at the very least, mesh with Stefanski's philosophy. It also goes hand in hand with the next takeaway.
Deshaun Watson's setback may be the beginning of the end to his time in Cleveland
There was a world where Watson was starting games in 2025. It's theoretically one that could still exist, although the setback in his recovery seems to throw any thought of that happening out the window.
Advertisement
What this news potentially does is open the door to separation between Watson and the team after the 2025 season. The insurance the team could recoup on the cap from a significant injury to the quarterback, nearly $45 million, can't occur until the 2026.
The normal timeline for an Achilles recovery is around eight to nine months. That would've put him right up to the start of training camp.
If the setback is long enough, though, it could open the door to conversations between the two sides. Not necessarily for the 2025 season, but something before the 2026 season.
Kevin Stefanski's kind of QB feels like the choice for 2025 Browns
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders warms up before a game against Brigham Young on Dec. 28, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas.
Building off the initial takeaway, if the offense is going to be going back toward the style favored by Stefanski, then the quarterback is where it has to start. That means finding that guy, or multiple guys, to fit within that system.
Advertisement
That's where the Kirk Cousins conversation takes off, since the NFL world saw it firsthand when Stefansk worked with Cousins in 2018-19. That's certainly not to say Cousins would be anything beyond a stop-gap option until the real future at the position shows up.
That could very well come with the No. 2 overall pick in April's draft. Miami 's Cam Ward and Colorado's Shedeur Sanders are seen, at least at this stage of the process, as the top two options at the position.
Regardless of how the Browns get there at the position, the best guess would be that it would be heavily influenced by Stefanski.
Dawand Jones feels like 1st option for Browns left tackle in 2025
Cleveland Browns offensive tackle Dawand Jones (79) eyes Baltimore Ravens linebacker Tavius Robinson (95) on Oct. 27, 2024, in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Browns have a massive vacancy to fill at left tackle next season. Jedrick Wills Jr., the first draft pick of Berry's tenure, is a free agent and there's legitimate questions about whether he would be interested in a fresh start after the injury-plagued way his last year-in-a-half in Cleveland went.
Advertisement
There's also the fact Dawand Jones may have piqued the Browns' interest in his abbreviated tryout at the spot this season. Jones started three games at left tackle before suffering a broken fibula in Week 11, and it was clear during that run that he was making a strong impression on the organization.
Reading between Berry's lines Monday, you can see where it could be heading.
"So maybe to start with Jed, it's probably like all of our players with expiring deals where we've got to work through all of that in the next several weeks," Berry said. "With Dawand, we did feel like he was actually hitting his stride before he got injured middle of the year.
"It is funny. Kevin was like, 'Hey, let's just kick him over to left tackle during one of the practice weeks,' and then we had the injury, it was like, 'Oh, well, I guess he's got to play the next week.' It ended up being, I guess, prescient, if you speak, and I think Dawand deserves credit because it's really like the first time in his career that he's played at the spot with probably minimal preparation.
Advertisement
"He acclimated pretty quickly. How that spot looks going into 2025, it's probably too early to tell, but we did feel like it was good to get him some game experience at that position."
JOK, Mike Hall Jr. among a run of significant injuries Browns have dealt with in recent years
Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) is tackled by Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. (51) on Jan. 4, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Football is a violent sport. The injuries Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. suffered in the two games against the Ravens are not, on their own, indicative of anything other than unfortunate circumstances.
Owusu-Koramoah sustained a season-ending neck injury in Week 8, and the Browns have been very quiet about it since it occurred. The former second-round pick has been seeking out various opinions from doctors, which is why Berry and Stefanski would only go as far as to say they were "hopeful" he would play next season.
Advertisement
Hall's rookie season started with a five-game suspension because of his domestic violence arrest in August, included four games on injured reserve with a knee injury and then ended with a second-half knee injury in the finale. Berry said the recovery time would be in the "months" but there was a chance he could return for next season.
Berry, though, also acknowledged in his opening statement Monday that the rash of injuries the Browns have dealt with not just this season, but even last season, has been a cause of concern. That's why he spoke about, among the things they were looking into this offseason, was "how we practice, how we train to avoid the major losses that we've had in player availability over the past couple of years."
The Browns have suffered a unbelievably high number of injuries to key players that has resulted in players ending up on season-ending injured reserve. They overcame that a year ago to win 11 games and go to the playoffs.
This year, they weren't so fortunate.
Advertisement
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Takeaways from Browns' lost season: A new path forward on offense?
