Seems odd to me to fire Stefanski, but keep Berry. I get it, there has to be a scapegoat for truck stop Jimmy, but they've been in Cleveland the same amount of time. Fire 'em all and start fresh or keep them for another year. Otherwise, I think it sends the message that a better HC could have won more with the same roster(s).
Keeping Berry yet firing Stefanski is so inadequate. I don't understand how Berry keeps his job. If you take him at his word, he was responsible for the Watson trade & contract, which is amongst the worst GM decisions in NFL history. Clearly the Watson trade & contract helped sink the Browns the past couple of years by removing 3 first round picks from the team, as well as putting a lousy/injured QB on the roster who got paid way too much. The Watson decisions alone should have already gotten Berry fired - perhaps the lack of firing of Berry is an indication that Haslam was ultimately pulling the strings on that move.
Nevertheless, Berry has done a very poor job of drafting offensive players - his hit rate on draft picks for offense is incredibly low. Fannin looks good, but let's hope he doesn't develop injury problems. Getting injured in Year 1 is never a good sign for the future. You can say Judkins was a good pick talent-wise, but IMO it wasn't a good pick, because although he's a legit NFL RB, the Browns couldn't block for him. Plus, RB in the NFL is a meat grinder, plug & play position that's heavily dependent on the ability of the OL to not suck, so it's more important to have a good OL. Then he drafted Gabriel (who projects as a career backup) in the 3rd round when they didn't have a good starter. The Browns have drafted one OL in the first round in the last 10 years, while the league has drafted 25% first-round OL in the past couple of drafts.
The lack of a running game, awful OL, and super shitty WR corps also made it next to impossible for the QB to be successful. It would literally have taken a league MVP-level performance from the QB to have made the playoffs this season, and obviously they didn't have that kind of play from the QB position. I don't know what kind of offense Stefanski could have coached out of these guys when the line was constantly failing. I don't even like picking defensive ROY Schwesinger in the 2nd round, because again LB is a meat-grinder position that doesn't have longevity and it's plug & play dependent on how well the team around them is doing - he also ended up injured at the end of the season. So Berry's "good" draft included low-value positions RB and LB in the second-round, positions they should have just filled through free agency and/or mid-round picks, while standing pat with the worst OL and WR corps in the league, and drafting a career backup QB in the 3rd round. While talent-wise last year's draft was solid, it didn't fit the real needs of the team.
