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Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced Thursday that he will be the team's offensive play-caller in 2025.
Daniel Oyefusi @DanielOyefusiThe Browns are officially announcing Tommy Rees as OC today.<br><br>HC Kevin Stefanski says he will call plays in 2025. <a href="https://t.co/Z0XYkQxRlU">pic.twitter.com/Z0XYkQxRlU</a>
Stefanski also announced the promotion of Tommy Rees from pass game specialist and tight ends coach to offensive coordinator.
While Stefanski began 2024 as the Browns' offensive play-caller, he ceded those duties to then-OC Ken Dorsey in late October. However, Dorsey was fired earlier this month after the Browns finished tied for the NFL's worst record at 3-14.
Stefanski, 42, has been the Browns' head coach since 2020, and while he has taken them to the playoffs twice and earned a pair of NFL Coach of the Year Awards, he has a cumulative record of just 40-44.
Hopes were high for the Browns in 2024, coming off an 11-6 record and a playoff appearance the previous season, but the wheels fell off due largely to issues at the quarterback position.
The Browns had four different starting quarterbacks in Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappe, and they combined to complete 59.8 percent of their passing attempts for 3,506 yards, 19 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.
Unlike in previous years under Stefanski, the Browns didn't have much of a running game either, as Nick Chubb rushed for just 332 yards and three touchdowns in eight games, while averaging only 3.3 yards per carry coming off a torn ACL.
Cleveland had the 29th-ranked running game in the NFL, and it threw the most interceptions, which is never a winning formula.
The success of the Browns' offense in 2025 could come down to the quarterback situation, which is very much in a state of flux right now.
Watson's 2024 season ended after seven games due to a torn Achilles, and it was announced two weeks ago that he tore it again, which required an additional surgery.
That means Watson may not be available for the entire 2025 season, leaving Thompson-Robinson as the only healthy quarterback under contract for next season.
Given that they own the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, the Browns could select their quarterback of the future by taking either Miami's Cam Ward or Colorado's Shedeur Sanders.
They could also explore the free-agent market, which figures to be headlined by Sam Darnold, who is coming off a career year with the Minnesota Vikings.
Veteran Russell Wilson is also in line to be a free agent, and he could be joined by Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rodgers if their respective teams release them.
Whoever is chosen to be the Browns' starting quarterback in 2025 will have their work cut out for them, as Cleveland ranked 28th in total offense and 32nd in scoring offense in 2024.
It will be up to Stefanski to install a more effective offense next season, although he said Thursday that he reserves the right to change his mind with regard to being the offensive play-caller.
Rees has only been in the NFL since the start of this season and has never been a play-caller at that level, but he had success collegiately as the OC at Notre Dame and Alabama, which suggests the 32-year-old may have a bright future as an NFL play-caller.
