The Cleveland Browns’ 2024 season was anything but what they hoped it would be after making the playoffs just last season with 11 wins. After falling to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 18, the Browns have a 3-14 record to show for their 2024 efforts.
Cleveland wasted no time making changes following their disaster season. About 12 hours after their game against the Ravens ended, the Browns moved on from a couple of coaches. Offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and offensive line coach Andy Dickerson were let go on Sunday morning.
There are big issues that the Browns have to address this offseason and they go past the offensive assistants. If the Browns don’t address their quarterback position in some way, we will be having this conversation again next season.
Cleveland has to find a starting quarterback for 2025
The last couple of seasons have shown the Browns that they made the worst trade in NFL history when they acquired Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans. Watson is going to be on the roster in 2025 and will spend this offseason recovering from his Achilles injury.
Each of the last two seasons, the Browns have had to start four different quarterbacks. The first time around the Browns maneuvered around it and Kevin Stefanski won a Coach of the Year award due to it. This time around, it went about as ugly as one would expect. Cleveland has to bring in another starting-level quarterback to compete with Watson for the job.
Whether this is through the draft or signing a veteran, Cleveland would be hurting themselves to just hand the job to Watson next season. Sure, he can have a chance to win the job. However, his time in a Browns uniform has shown us that he likely won’t if the Browns bring in another capable starter.
What is next for the Browns at offensive coordinator?
Cleveland brought in Dorsey because he specializes in some of the things that Watson did well with the Texans. Cleveland’s offense was historically bad at times in 2024 and a change had to happen. Stefanski handed Dorsey the play-calling duties partially through the season and the offense looked just as bad if not worse than before.
Cleveland very well could go back to a wide zone scheme, which multiple offensive linemen said they would be comfortable with on Sunday. The Browns were a much better offense and running team before this season when they went away from the wide zone. Losing offensive line coach Bill Callahan did not help either, but changing schemes was likely a bigger culprit.
Stefanski has to hit on this next offensive coordinator hire, that much is known. If not, we won’t see him back in 2026 and maybe wouldn’t even make it through 2025. It is a jet hire that the Browns must nail after failing last go around. Building a system around Watson was the wrong decision and it did not take long to see that. Cleveland will interview multiple candidates for their coordinator job and it will be interesting to see if Stefanski takes back play calling.
Cleveland is in a tough spot and things are very cloudy. We saw a couple of coaches already labeled as fall guys for their 2024 season. If the Browns don’t correctly address the biggest issues on the team, they may be cleaning house completely at this time next season.
