Stump Mitchell knows a thing or two about how the Deshaun Watson era has gone for the Cleveland Browns. In fact, he’s one of the few people who understand why the marriage between head coach Kevin Stefanski — a well-known offensive mind — and the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback hasn’t worked.

Forget the off-field stuff for a moment and forget the injuries that have plagued Watson’s time in Cleveland. Speaking purely from a football perspective, Watson went from one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL from his time with the Houston Texans to a disappointment in the games he has played in for the Browns since 2022.

Pairing a young and bright-minded offensive head coach with a star quarterback seems to make sense most of the time in the NFL, so why hasn’t it worked out for Cleveland? According to Mitchell, who was the Browns’ running backs coach from 2019 to 2023, it’s because Stefanski tried too hard to mold his offensive system to Watson rather than fit Watson into his already proven scheme.

“What Kevin failed to do was be the best that he can be. Kevin has been successful with all types of quarterbacks because he called the same system for all types of quarterbacks. The system was the same, except for Deshaun,” Mitchell said on the “Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show”.

Watson was without a doubt bad in the games he’s played in for Cleveland, but as Mitchell saw it, the quarterback also wasn’t getting the most out of his head coach and play-caller. That’s because, according to Mitchell, Stefanski wasn’t calling the offense true to what had made him successful.

“He changed the system to try to fit or mastermind it towards Deshaun, but that wasn’t the thing to do because that didn’t make Kevin the best play-caller that he could be,” Mitchell said.

Watson went from one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL to a 19-to-13 touchdown-to-interception ratio with the Browns and an average quarterback rating of 80.7 in 19 games played.

Watson may never play another snap for Cleveland as he looks to rehab from an Achilles injury he suffered in October 2024 and then re-injured less than three months later. That will keep him out for much of the 2025 season, and who knows? By then Cleveland may have found its actual answer at quarterback.

Clearly Watson wasn’t it. Who’s to blame for that? There’s plenty to go around, but Mitchell clearly feels that Stefanski should shoulder some of it.