Browns pass owner Jimmy Haslam's '120 day' offseason test

It was January 5th, 2026, and Cleveland was about 16 hours removed from a thrilling comeback win against division rival Cincinnati that ended their season. They had already told Kevin Stefanski that he would be relieved of his duties following the game, yet the Browns poured their heart out for their coach, who already had his office packed up.

Cleveland made it public that Stefnaski would no longer be the head coach, and the clock began to tick.

Owner Jimmy Haslam led a press conference that afternoon, and in it, he said that the next 120 days would be "crucial" to the future of the Cleveland Browns. Believe it or not, Tuesday marked the end of the 120-day hourglass and Cleveland has done everything in their power to set up the future of this franchise.

There are two ways to view this proclamation by Cleveland's owner. The first is that he was kind of blowing smoke and pulled a random number out and said it into a microphone. I believe that part to be 50 percent true. The other way to look at it is that he actually had a deadline, and Cleveland was operating under the belief that when the calendar turned to May 5th, they needed to feel good about the direction of their franchise.

Andrew Berry, general manager, and Jimmy Haslam, owner, chat at the Browns mini camp in Berea on April 21, 2026.

I look at this as a pass or fail grade because it is nearly impossible to know at this point if any of the decisions were correct. What we do know is that each of their decisions was sound.

Cleveland took just three weeks to interview coaches, and that search was completed on January 28th, 2026, when Todd Monken was named the head coach. He certainly was not the sexiest option, but as more information has come out, he is a darn good option and a guy who is equally hungry to coach a winning football team as one of the young options that were out there.