Where does Kevin Stefanski rank among the Cleveland Browns' all-time head coaches?

With Monday’s news that Kevin Stefanski has been relieved of his duties as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, there’s plenty of time to reflect on what he did right, what he did wrong and how we got to this point, with the club now looking for its 19th full-time head coach.

Stefanski leaves a team mired, once again, in the middle of a quarterback conundrum, without any definitive answers for the short or long term. He also leaves the club with a ton of potential, especially on defense, where young playmakers jelled almost perfectly with proven veteran leaders.

So, where does Stefanski rank among Cleveland’s all-time head coaches? Let’s take a peek:

1. Paul Brown, 1946-1962

No one's even close to touching what Brown did for the club, as the co-founder and first head coach for Cleveland. Four AAFC titles in four years followed by three NFL Championships in the team’s first six years in the league say everything you need to know about him. In 13 years as the NFL’s Browns head coach, the club appeared in seven NFL Championship Games, and Browns suffered only one losing season.

He was instrumental in bringing down the racial barrier in the league, as well, and developing the face mask to protect the players. He’s the only head coach in the history of the organization with a winning percentage over .700 (158-48-8) and the only coach in the club’s history with a winning percentage in postseason (9-5, .643). In terms of legacy, Brown is in a league of his own when it comes to football in Ohio.

Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski hangs his head during the second half as his team trails the Buffalo Bills. | Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

2. Blanton Collier, 1963-1970

Brown’s disciple and successor, Collier led the Browns to four NFL Championship Games, winning the 1964 crown. This is still the Browns’ most recent championship. He never had a losing season as Cleveland’s head coach, and his .691 winning percentage (76-34-2) is the club’s second best ever. Under Brown, Collier developed an annual grading system which was used by the team for several years.

3. Marty Schottenheimer, 1984-1988

The Browns’ defensive coordinator, he took over as an interim head coach for a 1-7 team in 1984 under Sam Rutigliano, and then proceeded to turn Cleveland into a perennial contender in the AFC, leading the team to four straight playoff appearances including two back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 1986 and 1987.

His .620 winning percentage is the third highest in team history among non-interim coaches, only behind Brown and Collier. It was during Schottenheimer’s tenure that the Browns managed to snag Bernie Kosar via the supplemental draft in 1985, and it was also during this time that the famous Dawg Pound section was created, thanks to cornerbacks’ Hanford Dixon and Frank Minniefield’s initiative. Schottenheimer never suffered a losing season in Cleveland.

4. Kevin Stefanski, 2020-2025

Stefanski joined Cleveland after a couple of years as the Vikings offensive coordinator, and summarily won Coach of the Year honors in 2020, leading Cleveland to its first playoff appearance in 18 seasons, and first playoff win in 16 years. He once again was named Coach of the Year by AP in 2023, when he became the first Browns’ head coach to lead the team to the postseason twice in his tenure since Schottenheimer in the late eighties.

Unlike the coaches above him on this list, Stefanski did go through a couple of terrible seasons, including a 3-14 record in 2024 and a 5-12 mark in 2025, leading to his dismissal. Stefanski’s greatest contribution to the team might be raising the bar at the head coaching position after almost two decades of it being held impossibly low.

5. Nick Skorich, 1971-1974

Taking over after Collier’s retirement, the Browns made the playoffs twice in Skorich’s four years as the head coach, and Cleveland only had one losing season (1974). His .556 winning percentage in the regular season is the fourth best in the franchise’s history among non-interim coaches. As the team’s head coach and offensive coordinator, he was key in drafting quarterback Brian Sipe -- an eventual NFL MVP -- in 1972.