The week of January 13th, 2025, has been interesting for the Cleveland Browns organization, to say the least. The week started with the announcement of tight ends coach Tommy Rees being promoted to offensive coordinator, a move many Browns fans expected if they paid attention to the local media. This announcement however was not what made this week interesting. During the early morning of Wednesday, January 15th, Jason Loyd of The Athletic released an article that sent Browns fans, media, and critics into a frenzy. Today, I will cover my thoughts on this wild week for the Browns and what it means for the team moving forward as they prepare the roster for the 2025 season.

Tommy Rees Hired as Offensive Coordinator

Tommy Rees was long rumored to be the next Offensive Coordinator for the Browns. Rees has experience at the college level as an offensive coordinator, coordinating for the Alabama Crimson Tide in Nick Saban’s last year as the head coach there, as well as for his alma mater, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Rees has had plenty of backing from big-name coaches, the previously mentioned Saban being one of them. Rees is a promising young mind to pair with offensive guru Kevin Stefanski. Something to note about Rees however is that he was the offensive coordinator in 2023 for 2025 draft prospect, Jalen Milroe. Milroe posted the best statistics of his college career with Rees, throwing for 2,834 yards, 23 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. This connection with Rees makes me curious as to whether the Browns will try to grab Milroe on day two of the 2025 draft as their next “project” quarterback. Either way, Tommy Rees is a wait-and-see-what-happens hire as he has not coordinated an offense at the pro level, despite his potential and promise being too good to pass up.

The Jason Loyd Article

As a second Achilles tear leaves Deshaun Watson’s career in danger, the Browns can begin moving on from the biggest mistake in franchise history.

How did it get to this? And how did it end so badly?

✍️ @ByJasonLloyd

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 15, 2025

Jason Loyd of The Athletic dropped a bombshell of information regarding the Browns and Deshaun Watson that left fans spiraling. The article, in short, goes over all of the dysfunction the team dealt with during the 2024 season surrounding failed quarterback Deshaun Watson. I won’t summarize the article as you should go check it out if you haven’t and instead give my opinion on the main talking points that blew my mind. This trade has officially set the franchise back by years. Stefanski refused to criticize the bad play of Watson in front of the team, and the Browns would not have him participate in drills he was not good at in front of the media because Watson was supposed to be the franchise quarterback, and his confidence was that shot. This tells you all you need to know. The Browns have returned to the same dysfunction that plagued the team for the 20 years before Stefanski became the coach. The fact that we lost legendary Offensive Line Coach Bill Calahan because we fired then offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and Hired Ken Dorsey to “Better fit” the offense around a Quarterback with zero confidence is an even worse addition to the outcome of what is the worst trade in NFL History. Players were quoted as saying “It felt like a black cloud was lifted” when Watson tore his Achilles is just another indictment on Watson and the Browns has how catastrophic the failure of this trade has been.

It has been a rough week for the Browns, and there is blame to be pointed everywhere. To me, it comes down to the ownership. As much as fans want to blame this situation on Berry and Stefanski this has Haslams written all over it. Since the end of the season, multiple reports have come out saying the locker room of the Browns still feels confident in Kevin Stefanski and the direction of the team moving forward. It seems to me that everyone was aware that the “higher powers” aka the Haslams were forcing the team to hide how bad of a move the Watson trade was for as long as possible to either save face or see a miracle happen where Deshaun Watson would return to the player he once was. This article is the official end of the Watson era in Cleveland. An article of this magnitude would not have leaked out if the team still had faith in Watson and I for one breathe a sigh of relief that this era is finally over.