Smokescreen season officially begins this week at the NFL Combine.
While the annual event provides the the spark for much of the league's offseason activity, it also brings plenty of cryptic messaging from teams attempting to keep their offseason plans a mystery.
Since head coach Kevin Stefanski arrived in Cleveland in 2020 decoding the organization's messaging has become quite a bit more tedious. Stefanski tends to say a lot but reveal very little.
As he prepares to meet with the media in Indianapolis around 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday though, one major question still needs answering regarding who will be the team's primary play-caller? When Stefanski last spoke publicly he provided a brief introduction to new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, declaring that it was too soon to announce any finite decisions on the subject.
"It’s February 5," Stefanski asserted. "What’s most important, what I’m looking forward to the most is putting this offense back together with Ken really leading the charge. And that’s why he’s here and really pleased to have him here."
A mere three weeks since Dorsey's big introduction, don't expect Stefanski to provide many more details during his NFL Combine presser. Dorsey was brought in to work closely with Deshaun Watson and bring a different perspective to the offense. It's safe to assume he and Stefanski are already putting their heads together on rethinking the Browns philosophy on that side of the ball.
But it seems unlikely that Stefanski is any more equipped to make such an important announcement on play calling less than a month later, before Dorsey is able to work more closely with Watson – who is expected to begin throwing next month following his shoulder surgery – or the rest of the offense for that matter. The 41-year-old has never been one to rush these types of decisions anyway.
It's more likely Stefanski will start figuring out who will handle the play-calling once the team's offseason program begins later this spring. That won't stop the question from being asked on Wednesday though. And it certainly won't stop anyone from reading between the lines on his answer.
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