During his first news conference, the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns acknowledged the turmoil that’s come with turnover in the position, and he promised fans that he will work to deliver a winner.
Kevin Stefanski described the players as a "resilient" group after having multiple changes in the coaching staff over the past two years.
"I have no doubt a player like Baker (Mayfield), you mentioned, all of our players, they’ll understand, that my job is to make them better football players. Our coaches' job is to develop them as football players. And once they hear that message, and understand that message, I truly believe they’ll understand what we’re getting ready to build here," Stefanski said.
The new coach comes from Minnesota where he was the Vikings offensive coordinator for one season. He was a member of the Vikings' coaching staff for 14 seasons.
Stefanski described how he’ll lead the team.
"My leadership style is to be authentic. I’m going to be me and I think that’s good enough and I’m going to be direct with our players and they’re going to get to know me and I’m going to get to know them. And I want to lead from a relationship stand point, I want them to understand what I’m about."
The new head coach did not make any bold predictions, but promises the team will work.
Stefanski will be Cleveland's third head coach in two years after former coach Freddie Kitchens was fired on Dec.29, 2019. Kitchens led the Browns for one season after taking over from former interim head coach Gregg Williams. Williams replaced Hue Jackson in the middle of the 2018-2019 season.
The Browns still have to hire a general manager. Stefanski will be involved with that process, but won’t have the final say.
