Facing offensive struggles, the Cleveland Browns will have a new play-caller on Sunday against the New York Jets, as head coach Kevin Stefanski revealed a major mid-season shakeup leading into Week 9
For the second straight season Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski is making a mid-season handoff off of play-calling to his offensive coordinator.
Tommy Rees will handle those responsibilities moving forward, after Stefanski used the bye week to evaluate any potential options he had to get his offense producing at a more consistent level.
This was the solution he came up with.
"I'm gonna have Tommy Call the plays on offense," Stefanski said to open up his press conference Monday. "These are things that we're always looking at, what can we do better? I have a ton of trust and faith in Tommy. He's more than capable, so excited for him. But the bottom line is we have to just get better collectively. So that's offense, that's defense that's special teams, that's players, that coaches. That's our charge and that's what we're working hard to do."
Through the first nine weeks of the season, Cleveland's offense ranks 30th in points per game at a clip of 15.8. Under Stefanski's command, the unit is also near the bottom of the league in several other telling statistics like third down efficiency (30), total first downs (31) and yards per game (31). It also ranks near the top of the league in interceptions thrown with eight so far.
The hope is that Rees brings a different perspective to the offense, and can spark some better results than the Browns have produced to this point.
"Certainly the bye week gives you the opportunity to look at everything and bottom line is we have to be better, we have to be better in a lot of facets on the offensive side," he said. "I just felt like Tommy is somebody that I believe in, obviously hired him here a couple years back because I really believe in Tommy as a coach and he's done everything that we've asked and I just feel like this is the right time for this."
In 2024, Stefanski passed off the play-calling to then offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey leading into Week 8, after the Browns had limped to a 1-6 start with Deshaun Watson under center. The move timed up with Watson suffering a season-ending Achilles tear, paving the way for veteran Jameis Winston to start in his place. The result of both changes fueled an unexpected 29-24 upset win over the Baltimore Ravens.
It was a short lived payoff, though. Cleveland went on to win one more game the rest of the way with Dorsey calling the plays. This time around, Stefanski hopes his decision can lead to more sustained success over the back half of the season.
Veteran guard Wyatt Teller believes it can, because Rees' philosophy plays into the team's strengths.
"I know Tommy well enough to know that his past has been run heavy, so if we can just kinda get with that," Teller said. "Now that being said, in college, there's a lot more run than past, but I just think that that's inherent. But yeah, so I'm excited that hopefully we get stuff rolling and get back on track offensively, because defensively we've been just fine."
The on the field results are most important, but Stefanski's move could also comes with some psychological effects, most notably it's a sign to his team that he's willing to do whatever is necessary to help the team win.
"I feel like as a leader of a team to be able to give that up, I mean, there's obviously some pain to that, especially because I've been here when, it's not Kevin's play calling, right," said Teller. "There's a lot of issues that we have to address. Hopefully we can get some stuff running. As long as they don't ask me to call the plays, I'll be just fine."
Rees has been the primary play caller two times during his career, both in college at his Alma Mater Notre Dame from 2020-2022. And then under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2023, before joining the Browns staff in 2024.
Sunday will mark his first opportunity to do it in the NFL, though. That can be a daunting ask, but Stefanski plans on supporting him anyway he can.
"Tommy's gonna be himself, that's what I'm asking him to do," Stefanski said. "I'll be there every step of the way to help him in anyway I can, like you should with any play-caller. Bottom line is he understands what we need to do, which is stay on the field and score some points."