Getty Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt (left) and head coach Kevin Stefanski (center) of the Cleveland Browns talk with former QB Jacoby Brissett during an NFL preseason game against the Chicago Bears in August 2022.
The Cleveland Browns have parted ways with multiple offensive coaches just days after their January 13 wild-card loss to the Houston Texans.
Josina Anderson of CBS Sports broke the news on Wednesday morning, January 17, that the team had fired offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. The Browns also parted ways with two of Van Pelt’s position coaches.
Breaking: I’m told the #Browns have fired offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney, per source.
Some of the players are upset from the news.
“Breaking: I’m told the #Browns have fired offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney, per source,” Anderson reported on X. “Some of the players are upset from the news.”
Anderson did not indicate whether general manager Andrew Berry or head coach Kevin Stefanski initiated the firings.
UPDATE: Ian Rapoport of NFL Network followed up Anderson’s report roughly an hour later.
Rapoport posted a report of his own to X indicating that the Browns had fired Mitchell and would not retain McCartney. However, Rapoport also said that, “Van Pelt remains under contract, with no other final decisions made,” which contradicted the reporting done by Anderson earlier Wednesday morning.
Soon after, Anderson reposted Rapoport’s report, adding the following: “I’m told Alex Van Pelt informed some of [the] members of the team yesterday he was let go Tuesday afternoon upon hearing this specific news & received messages of condolences to that end, along with Mitchell and McCartney, per source.”
Kevin Stefanski Hired Alex Van Pelt After Becoming Browns Head Coach in 2020
GettyHead coach Kevin Stefanski of the Cleveland Browns.
Van Pelt arrived in Cleveland with Stefanski in 2020 and served as the offensive coordinator in both seasons that resulted in playoff berths for the Browns (2020, 2023).
The quarterback position has been in flux in Cleveland since Van Pelt assumed the offensive reins. He coached Baker Mayfield during his first two years on the job. The Browns then traded Mayfield in 2022 after dealing for Deshaun Watson. Cleveland ultimately signed Watson to the largest fully guaranteed contract in NFL history ($230 million over five years).
The league suspended Watson for the first 11 games of the 2022 campaign, during which Jacoby Brissett served as the starter. Watson returned for the final six contests of the year, but he wasn’t the same three-time Pro Bowler he’d been with the Texans.
The Browns ultimately started five different quarterbacks in 2023 due to a variety of factors, including a season-ending injury to Watson in November and inconsistent play from backups PJ Walker and rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson. However, Van Pelt’s offense found its stride after the team signed Joe Flacco.
Flacco lost his first game as a starter against the Los Angeles Rams before stringing together four consecutive wins and leading the Browns to their second playoff berth of the Stefanski era. Flacco averaged well over 300 yards passing in the six games he started for Cleveland (including on Super Wild Card Weekend), but he also threw 10 total interceptions. Two of those turnovers came on back-to-back drives in the second half against Houston last weekend, both of which Texans defenders returned for touchdowns.
The Texans blew the Browns out by a score of 45-14 on January 13, and Cleveland fired Van Pelt, Mitchell and McCartney four days later.
Browns Offense Was Elite After Joe Flacco Became Starting QB
GettyQuarterback Joe Flacco of the Cleveland Browns.
Cleveland’s decision to fire Van Pelt is somewhat curious considering the amount of success the Browns have had over the past four seasons, and particularly how effective the offense was down the stretch in 2023.
The franchise is 37-30 under Stefanski, and Van Pelt served as his offensive coordinator for that entire run. Cleveland has won 11 games twice over the last four years and is now 1-2 in the playoffs over that span.
The Browns finished the 2023 regular season 4-2, though several starters sat out Week 17 against the Cincinnati Bengals as Cleveland had already locked up the No. 5 seed in the AFC and couldn’t move up or down based on the result of the final game.
Throwing that loss out then, the Browns averaged 28.6 points in five games with Flacco under center to end the year. Spread out over the entire season, that figure would have ranked Cleveland’s offense fourth in the NFL, per The Football Database.
The Browns’ average points per contest drops to 26.2 under Flacco, including his playoff start. Even still, that number would have placed Cleveland seventh among all NFL teams if achieved across the entirety of the regular season.
Stefanski went from being on the hot seat before the year began to now one of the front-runners for the NFL Coach of the Year Award, accomplishing that turnaround in no small part because of how well the Browns offense played down the stretch.
Considering that — and the fact that it was Berry’s choice to trade away/mortgage the franchise’s future for Watson in what has been a disastrous move over the last two seasons — Van Pelt feels like an odd scapegoat for the Browns’ playoff ineptitude last weekend in Houston.