In the entirety of the Browns’ history, there have been plenty of moments that have left fans wondering what could have been. One such moment likely stings even more as the Browns (1–5) inch closer to their fourth missed playoff appearance in the last five years.
Back in 2019, Cleveland, just two years removed from a winless season and in search of its fifth different head coach since 2011, had the chance to hire current Lions coach Dan Campbell. Campbell, then a tight ends coach with the Saints under Sean Payton, interviewed with Cleveland in January ’19, and reportedly knocked the interview out of the park.
But Campbell ultimately wasn’t hired by the Browns, seemingly due in part to owner Jimmy Haslam, as reported by Tyler Dunne of Go Long.
“It was awesome. I mean it was awesome, ” a source told Dunne of Campbell’s Browns interview. “But Dan said, ‘I want to have a tough team and run the ball.’ Because that’s what the old football guys would do. That doesn’t mean you’re not going to pass. But Jimmy was so much—I don’t want to say brainwashed—but under the influence of what the analytics say and how passing is so much more important than running, it was almost like he dismissed him after that statement.
“I don’t know that he did, but that’s what it felt like.”
While Dunne’s report admittedly hedges pretty heavilty at the end there, it still seems like Haslam had an idea in mind for exactly what kind of coach he was looking for—and Campbell didn’t exactly fit that mold philosophically. The Browns eventually promoted Freddie Kitchens, who went from running backs coach to interim offensive coordinator 2018, to become head coach the following year. Kitchens stumbled to a 6–10 record in ’19 and was a one-and-done.
The what-if-the-Browns-hired-Campbell scenario is made even more painful by the fact that Baker Mayfield, an MVP candidate for the Buccaneers in 2025, was in just his second season then. One can only imagine what a Campbell-Mayfield combination could have accomplished.
And while current Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, who was hired in 2020, has easily been the most successful coach the team has had since the 2000s began, he hasn’t exactly turned the Browns into a perennial winner.
It’s hard not to wonder if Campbell, likely en route to his third straight winning season in Detroit, would have done so in Cleveland.
