The NFLPA's annual report card brought a few surprises with it when it was released on Wednesday, perhaps most notably, when it came to head coach rankings.
Three of the bottom four head coaches are no longer with the teams they were in charge of. Last place went to the Chicago Bears, who fired Matt Eberflus in the middle of the 2024 season. The Jacksonville Jaguars ranked 31st but Doug Pederson was axed after a 4–13 campaign. The New Orleans Saints ranked 29th and replaced Dennis Allen after a 2–7 start. But the 30th ranked team was a bit shocking.
The Cleveland Browns finished 30th, and received a grade of C. The team's head coach, Kevin Stefanski oversaw a brutal 3–14 season with plenty of issues at the quarterback position. But Stefanski hasn't always been in charge of bad Browns teams. During his first season in Cleveland, he led the team to an 11–5 record and a wild card round win before bowing out in the divisional round. He went 8–9 in 2021 and 7–10 in 2022. Then in 2023, the Browns went back to the postseason after an 11–6 campaign that ended in a wild card round loss to the Houston Texans.
In both 2020 and 2023, Stefanski was named AP NFL Coach of the Year. The 42-year-old knows how to coach in the NFL but his players don't seem to regard him as highly as the rest of the league does.
The Browns possess the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NFL draft and have an unsettled quarterback situation thanks to Deshaun Watson's erratic on-field performance and complications in his recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Additionally, the team's biggest star, Myles Garrett, is demanding a trade.
Despite his past success, Stefanski's position in Cleveland does not look secure.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Players Gave Worst Grade to Surprising Active Head Coach in Anonymous Survey.