Former Browns CEO Says Cleveland Nearly Nabbed Jim Harbaugh

While Kevin Stefanski has led the Cleveland Browns to two playoff appearances in his four seasons as head coach, one has to wonder what the team might have looked like with Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines.

Ten years ago, the Browns were close to bringing the Ohio native to the Forest City in a trade with the San Francisco 49ers, according to former Browns CEO Joe Banner.

“Not many remember that in 2014 with the Browns we agreed to a trade with the 49ers to acquire Jim Harbaugh,” Banner, the team’s top executive in 2012 and 2013, posted on X on January 9. “Unfortunately from our perspective Jim blocked the trade and look what has happened to both sides since then. Changed the next decade for both sides.”

Given that Stefanski has led the Browns to a 37-29 record and has a year left on his five-year contract, there appears to be little reason for the Browns to be interested in Harbaugh now that he’s wrapped up a national championship-winning season with the Michigan Wolverines.

Stefanski, the first Browns coach since Marty Schottenheimer (1984-88) to have a winning record in his career, appears to be on the verge of an extension, according to USA Today’s Browns Wire.

“Stefanski is here to stay in Cleveland and is going to see a new contract on his desk. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Browns Wire’s Cory Kinnan wrote in a December 13 story.

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Harbaugh Denied the Initial Report, But the Browns Didn’t

On February 21, 2014, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio was the first to report the trade, saying the Browns would have sent multiple draft picks to the 49ers in exchange for Harbaugh’s services.

Later that same day, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen confirmed the report, even going so far as to say talks between the two sides “reached a serious stage.”

However, then-49ers CEO Jed York jumped into the mix, tagging Pro Football Talk and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport in a tweet stating the rumors were false.

Harbaugh himself then jumped into the conversation, according to ESPN’s Ed Werder, who posted that he’d received a text from Harbaugh denying the reports.

The Browns, though, did not deny Florio’s report. Cleveland stated that the search for a new head coach was “thorough” and “acknowledged that many options were considered” before expressing excitement about Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and his future with the franchise, which, again, lasted just two years.

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Browns Were Struggling at the Time of the Report

Simply put, the Browns were not in a good place following the 2013 season. They’d just wrapped up a 4-12 campaign, marking the sixth straight season the team had won five games or fewer.

And in those six seasons, the franchise had employed four different head coaches, the last being Rob Chudzinski, who was fired after one season and hasn’t been a head coach since.

Meanwhile, Harbaugh, who’d taken the San Francisco job in 2011 after four seasons at Stanford, was just a year removed from taking the 49ers to the Super Bowl and was coming off his third consecutive appearance in the NFC Championship Game.

With Harbaugh no longer an option, the Browns ultimately hired Pettine. Banner announced in February 2014 that he would be leaving the Browns. Later that year, he joined the Atlanta Falcons as a consultant.

Pettine was the first of another four head coaches in Cleveland over the next six seasons before the franchise brought in Stefanski in 2020.

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