Cleveland Browns’ 5 offseason questions: Play-calling, extensions, Deshaun Watson, more

BEREA — The Browns’ season has been over for three weeks since their AFC wild-card loss in Houston. Somehow, there may only be more questions to be answered now than there were the night their season ended.

Some of the questions are personnel-related. However, in the last two-plus weeks, there’s been several more questions created surrounding the coaching staff and, by extension, the front office and even ownership.

Coming off an 11-6 regular season and the team’s third playoff berth since 1999, some questions were just inevitable. Still, with months remaining before the Browns even get back together for the start of the voluntary offseason program, these are questions where at least a little clarity would be nice. Some of it could come soon, some may remain cloudy for some time.

If either the head coach or the new offensive coordinator was to nip this one in the bud, they can do so Monday new OC Ken Dorsey is expected to be introduced to the media. All it takes is Kevin Stefanski saying something along the lines of, “I love calling plays, but I just believe there’s so much more on my plate as a head coach going into this season, it’s best to focus on those and let Ken handle the play calling.”

Want to put cold, hard cash on that being said, or even words that somewhat resemble that clear-cut of an answer? Didn’t think so.

Sources have continually said the decision on who will call the plays is Stefanski’s, but that they were working through the decision, It’s hard to imagine hiring any offensive coordinator, let alone one who has called plays before, without that being discussed.

So the guess here is that, when Dorsey meets with the media for the first time in his new role, the question will most certainly be asked, and likely asked in several different ways. The answers, or non-answers, that follows will keep this topic on the front burner for some time.

This is actually a two-pronged question: How do they fill the vacancy and what’s the impact of Callahan’s loss?

The Browns talked to Andy Dickerson, the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive line coach last season, as part of the offensive coordinator interviews, so they could circle back to him.

Beyond Dickerson, the Browns also have a highly-regarded internal candidate in Callahan’s right-hand man, assistant line coach Scott Peters.

Listen to any Browns offensive lineman speak about Callahan’s impact, and it almost takes on reverential tones. Watch the way the Browns offensive line handled the litany of injuries this past season and still managed to win 11 games. and it all makes sense.

Peters isn’t Callahan, but the 45-year-old has worked in lock-step with him since Stefanski arrived in 2020. He’s been tutored in many ways by Callahan to run his own offensive line group at some point, and now could be that point, if for no other reason that to maintain a level of consistency.

It said “when” not “if” in the question. That’s because, despite what seems like a large percentage of turnover coming out of a playoff season, there’s been no indication within the organization that extensions don’t remain in the plans this offseason for the longest-tenured Browns general manager (Andrew Berry) since Ernie Accorsi in the 1980s and the longest-tenured Browns head coach (Kevin Stefanski) since Bill Belichick in the 1990s.