Sean Payton is too expensive for the Cleveland Browns to consider

The Cleveland Browns should just run things back with Kevin Stefanski and avoid chasing a phantom like Sean Payton.

I believe that multiple things can be true at the same time. Kevin Stefanski is a very average, dare I say at times, even bad, play-caller. He’s not consistently bad, but when he’s bad, oh man, he’s awful. But his scheme works. Baker Mayfield and Jacoby Brissett both put up their best seasons under Stefanski. Stefanski may be bad at knowing when to take the points, or how often he should or shouldn’t throw, but his system gets results.

So firing him isn’t some cure-all option. Keep in mind, there is no guarantee things get better if you fire Stefanski and replace him with any old coach. Not only do you risk ending up in a Denver Broncos situation, where you’re firing your head coach before the end of his first year, but you risk losing a locker room that, by all accounts, respects Stefanski.

So firing Stefanski to fire Stefanski because you’re angry at how this season went doesn’t make any sense. Now, someone is about to start typing “well, what about Sean Payton!? He’s better! Go get him, or Mike Tomlin!”

Replacing Kevin Stefanski at this juncture, for Sean Payton or anyone else, just doesn’t make sense for the Cleveland Browns

Well, the Steelers will never let Tomlin just leave, he’s too valuable to that franchise. Now, as for Payton, yeah, he may be an upgrade if he has time to build the team his way. He doesn’t. The Browns are running this back next year with most of the same pieces, and there’s no telling how Payton will be received.

Not only that, but due to the fact he retired mid-contract, any team that gets Payton will have to do some sort of trade deal with the Saints to get him. Frankly, the Browns don’t have the draft capital to go get Payton. They really wasted a lot of what they had to burn in the Deshaun Watson deal.

The Saints want at least one first-round pick for Payton and the Browns can’t keep trading away their picks. Look at the state the Los Angeles Rams are in, and how do you think they got there? They mortgaged their future to win now.

I hate that concept in any usual situation, but I would especially hate for the Browns. Peyton is a good coach, but the best situation for the Browns in 2023 and beyond is to not waste even more money and draft capital on a coach that is nearly 15 years removed from his lone Super Bowl. It’d very much be like going back to when the Browns hired the Mike Holmgren’s of the world.

If Stefanski pooches things in 2023, then you move on from him. Give him a Tema President and a GM who knows what they’re doing, and you’re going to bounce back.