Kevin Stefanski said he's enjoyed the Browns' process of interviewing general manager candidates and assured the team is taking its time and acting methodically to make sure the right decision is made.
Stefanski, speaking Wednesday at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards, said there isn't a timeline to wrap the search, which has been conducted by the same committee -- Dee and Jimmy Haslam, Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, Executive Vice President and Owner J.W. Johnson and Vice President of Football Administration Chris Cooper -- that pegged Stefanski as the team's new head coach.
"I think we've had some really qualified candidates in there," Stefanski said. "It's always fun to talk football with all of them. So I think we're gathering information as we go."
Stefanski said it "remained to be seen" whether the Browns would talk to more candidates. Last week, DePodesta said the team expected to meet with three to five candidates for the position.
-- Stefanski said he expected to meet with Odell Beckham Jr. on Thursday, just two days after the talented wide receiver underwent core muscle surgery. Beckham battled through the injury throughout 2019 and played in all 16 games.
"I don't have a relationship yet with Odell, so we need to sit down and get to know each other," Stefanski said. "He needs to get to know me, I need to get to know him, and then we're going to move forward with our eyes ahead to 2020."
Stefanski said he was relieved to learn fellow wide receiver, Jarvis Landry, would not require surgery for a hip injury that dogged him throughout the season. Landry is expected to play in Sunday's Pro Bowl.
"Anytime you can be conservative with an injury and get him back without going under the knife is always good because there's no surgery that's not invasive, so excited for him," Stefanski said. "I know he's going to play in the Pro Bowl, which is a great honor for him. He earned that. So looking forward again, get him back up here and sit down face to face and start to develop a relationship there."
-- Stefanski jokingly asked "what day is it?" when he was asked about his first full week on the job as Browns head coach.
"This is the gig and that's what I like about it," Stefanski said. "We're making a lot of decisions, but the most important decision as I stand here and as we work in our building, the most important thing is bringing the right people in. So part of hiring a coaching staff is making sure that we identified who those people are and make sure that that's who we want to add to our staff."
On top of all the staffing decisions and the general manager interview process, Stefanski said he's found time in the early mornings to watch film of the players that will fill the meeting rooms as soon as April, when offseason workouts begin. He said he'll also find time to watch film of the practices at the Senior Bowl.
"There's a certain amount of work that has to go into it," Stefanski said. "There's no way to just download a season's worth of film into my brain, so I've been spending a lot of time with it. And I think as we add coaches to the staff, then they can sit down and watch tape and we can start to identify the things that we may need moving forward."
