Fired Browns coach Kevin Stefanski checks the biggest non-negotiable box for the Titans head coach job

Kevin Stefanski would be perfect for Tennessee and Cam Ward.

Brandon Little, Easton Freeze
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One of the hottest names in the head coaching carousel right now is recently-fired former Browns HC Kevin Stefanski. Until John Harbaugh joined the fray, he was the belle of the ball in this cycle as soon as he was let go on Black Monday.

Stefanski is scheduled for an in-person interview with the Titans this weekend, but should Tennessee really be interested in a Cleveland Browns cast-off? I think the answer is clear and obvious, and he checks a giant box already.

Kevin Stefanski checks the Cam Ward box

There’s no question what the primary requirement for this Titans head coaching gig is: belief in and a plan for QB Cam Ward. Stefanski’s specific thoughts on the young passer will be dissected by Mike Borgonzi, Chad Brinker and company in the interview process. But we already know from last spring that he was a fan of the Miami product.

Cleveland was the only other in-person workout that Cam Ward conducted before he became a Titan in April. Mary Kay Cabot, the most plugged-in reporter on the Browns beat, said plainly this week that Stefanski would have been coaching Ward in Cleveland had the Titans passed on drafting him with the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

So there’s clearly a baseline level of belief there, and frankly, Ward would be the most talented QB Stefanski has had to work with in quite some time.

Why Kevin Stefanski is a hot coaching candidate after being fired

I think we’re all really overthinking this. First of all, there’s a big difference to me between retreads who completely failed to launch in their first gig and those who showed a lot of promise, but couldn’t quite get over the hump in the end. Stefanski is undoubtedly the latter, showing real promise during his six seasons in Cleveland.

He won coach of the year twice and got that franchise to 11 wins twice. They played in three playoff games, the first appearances in franchise history since 2002 and 1994 before that. Accomplishing all this with arguably the least functional team of my lifetime might as well be as difficult as winning a title in Kansas City with Mahomes if we’re grading on a curve.

I kid (sort of), but Stefanski did a lot of impressive things in his tenure. That team was in the desert until he showed up. And ever since Baker Mayfield’s departure, he’s been in QB hell.

He’s had to work around the single biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated on an NFL roster: the Deshaun Watson contract. It still hamstrings this team to this day. In 2023 he got to the postseason with five different starting QBs: Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, P.J. Walker, and Jeff Driskell. His teams were 8-26 in his final two seasons, ultimately leading to his dismissal. But over that stretch, he was working with Day 3 rookies Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel, Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Bailey Zappe.

Give this man a fresh start and something resembling a real NFL QB and see how good a coach he “suddenly” becomes.

Insight from Cleveland on Stefanski with Cam Ward

I reached out to A to Z Sports Cleveland Browns writer Brandon Little for his thoughts on Stefanski to Tennessee, and he raised an interesting point about what we heard last draft cycle:

“The Browns letting Stefanski go was simply due to how the last two years have gone and the lack of improvement. Stefanski receiving head coaching interest after being fired by the Browns confirms that the league thinks highly of him. The now former Browns head coach was fighting a losing battle in Cleveland ever since Baker Mayfield left town. If the Browns had hit on trading for Deshaun Watson, Stefanski wouldn’t be out of a job today. 

Cleveland needed a quarterback badly last draft and not taking one at No. 2 overall happened because their guy was already gone. The Browns’ actions by trading back and taking Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders showed exactly what they thought of the quarterback class. It was Cam Ward and then a drop off before everyone else in the 2025 NFL Draft. Had Cleveland been able to draft Ward, there’s a chance Stefanski isn’t available either.  

Cleveland sold Myles Garrett on a plan at quarterback before he signed an extension last offseason. I find it very hard to believe it’s the one that played out between Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders. There’s a chance that it was Ward — and that the Browns thought they could trade into pick No. 1 — or that they believed at that point that Tennessee was passing on him.

Stefanski’s offense was at its best with Mayfield, a player who can sling it all around the field. 
There isn’t a throw on the field that Ward can’t make — and that’s undoubtedly going to be attractive for Stefanski. You only get a couple of chances to “fail” as a head coach in the NFL typically. A place like Tennessee where the belief is that the quarterback of the future is in place makes a ton of sense for Stefanski’s next spot if things progress past the first interview.”

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