CLEVELAND — After an incredible season that ended in the Cleveland Browns’ first trip to the playoffs since 2002 and their first postseason win in 26 years, first-year head coach Kevin Stefanski has won the most prestigious coaching award, being named the 2020 Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year.
The award was given away during NFL Honors Saturday evening.
“I’m incredibly humbled, especially given some of the coaching we’ve witnessed this season around the NFL,” Stefanski said while receiving the award. “My name may be on this award but I think this speaks to the amazing support I get day in and day out from my coaching staff with the Cleveland Browns. I’m very glad I don’t have to do this by myself. Then the players — it helps to have good players. I appreciate how they work every single day, week in and week out and how they fought. I appreciate that from those guys.”
According to the Associated Press, Stefanski had more than half the ballots from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who cover the NFL.
Stefanski ended the regular season 11-5, posting the best record among new head coaches in 2020 and marking the most wins by a first-year Browns head coach since Brown in 1946.
Under Stefanski’s offense, the Browns run game thrived with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt ending the regular season as the only pair of teammates in the league with at least 840 rushing yards, while Baker Mayfield found himself again and joined Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck as the only players in NFL history to record at least 3,500 passing yards with at least 20 touchdown passes in each of their first three seasons.
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Stefanski held the best record among new head coaches in 2020 while collecting the most wins by a first-year Browns head coach since Paul Brown in 1946.
To say his first year in Cleveland and as a head coach was a success would be an understatement.
Stefanski adds the NFL Coach of the Year Award to his newly started but already lofty collection of accolades after previously being named Coach of the Year by both Sporting News and Pro Football Writers of America.
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