Now that the Cleveland Browns have won their first game under new head coach Todd Monken, they can start to feel a little bit better about their situation. Add to that the fact that Deshaun Watson had his highest passer rating in almost three years, and the optimism grows even more.
Not only did the Browns just defeat former quarterback Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they can look at Atlanta Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski and take some solace that they are nowhere near as bad as his team, which is 0-2 to open the campaign. So, Cleveland fans can be forgiven for piling on, if they choose to.
Former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh took that path, calling out the former Browns coach and saying that he could be fired by the Falcons after one season if he can’t get their offense turned around.
“Stefanski, you’re an offensive guy, and your teams can’t do s**t. You just left a team in the Cleveland Browns, and Deshaun Watson looks better without you. Way better without you. You may be the reason why Deshaun Watson was looking the way he was looking. That little weak-a** offense you got. Your quarterbacks and your offense this year have been terrible. You got one of the top-five triplets in the league. If you can’t do anything offensively, they’ve got to get rid of this dude. Year one. Because Coach of the Year, led [the Browns] to the playoffs. Was it really him, or was it Baker? At some point, you can’t live off that one season, the Coach of the Year, because I just saw Deshaun Watson yesterday throwing dimes, and he looked pretty good,” Houshmandzadeh said.
.@Housh84 cooked Falcons' head coach Kevin Stefanski! 👀
"Stefanski, you're an offensive guy and your teams can't win sh*t. You just left a team in the Cleveland Browns and Deshaun Watson looks better without you." pic.twitter.com/6wdBeACPVD
— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) September 21, 2026
It’s difficult to make the Falcons’ start to the season worse than it appears, but Houshmandzadeh has managed to do that. Most of the points he brings up need much better context.
Stefanski is far from entirely to blame for Watson’s failures with the Browns. The quarterback hadn’t played in almost two years before opening this season as Cleveland’s starter, and he was awful for most of its blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Before that, he had been available for just 19 of a possible 68 games, and it’s very hard to build an offense around someone like that.
Also, even though the Falcons have a strong combination of running back Bijan Robinson, wide receiver Drake London, and tight end Kyle Pitts, the term “triplets” usually includes a quarterback, and Atlanta is sorely lacking at that position. Third-stringer Cooper Rush started the first two games, with Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. dealing with injuries.
Houshmandzadeh also conveniently forgets that Stefanski won NFL Coach of the Year twice with the Browns, leading them to the playoffs with Mayfield in 2020, and then with Joe Flacco taking over for the final stretch in 2023, after Watson was injured. So it wasn’t only Baker, as Houshmandzadeh tries to say.
It is hard to defend Stefanski’s first two games with the Falcons, especially with Watson and the Browns looking better, but there’s a long way to go before the teams play each other in Week 14, when this debate could be truly decided.
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