DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns Hire Kevin Stefanski

Meh - seems like the article is a fluff piece attributing success with the Vikings to their QB Coach as opposed to the HC or OC.... Great that he can work with and improve QB's but crediting the QB coach with the offensive stats from several years ago while ignoring his performance and (lack of) stats/success as a OC 2 years ago is misleading or simply dishonest. . . . failing to mention his need to bring in Kubiak this year? Pffft. Not sure you can take much from such a biased piece of "journalism".

Well first, I am not saying you personally have a man crush on McDaniels...but you can see the overwhelming majority of those who are do have a man-crush.

Secondly, I am by no means an "expert" and never claimed to be one. I am like most people and going by things I have read. But I will try to convey what I do know.

As far as his approach. The guys is "smart" and driven. He embraces analytics (again to those out there with analytics phobia...it doesn't mean he lets analytics make his decisions...it is just another layer of data to help make a decision. Much like film study, combines, practice tapes, etc.) And he adapts to his surroundings as opposed to trying to force his surroundings into a predefined vision.

As far as his philosophy, he harps on fundamentals and builds a foundation of plays from which to build from. Can anyone tell me what was the foundation of Freddie's offense?

I remember last year (2018 season) they were talking to Landry about some plays that had amazing timing between he and Baker. even when they had motion pre-snap. And Landry was saying they just hammered on this hundreds of times during TC. Over and over again. Remember...Haley was OC at that time. So the receivers had this timing down...and so then as they had that down, Baker could catch that timing rather quickly when he became starter. This year we did not hear anything about timing except that is was off...So in this vein. the point is basically to say we had no foundation this year...we just kind of threw out plays. While Stefanski likes foundation plays. Ones that are just drilled into the players heads. They get it to a point where the other team knows it is coming and stil can't stop it. And then they have a plethora of plays that stem from it.

This sounds like every offense...or at least what every offense should be built like. But ours certainly wasn't. Our offense last year was all trim and windows....with no real foundation. It was a gathering of plays without much insight into scheme/strategy. I don't remember a string of plays this year that made me go "wow" we just really had them guessing the entire time.

Again. I am not an expert...just from the various things I have read. and anyone speaking on the different sportscenters and talk shows praise his leadership...I am looking forward to seeing it.

I was hoping for Saleh, because he was going to bring along an offensive coach or 2 who are familiar with Shanahan's offense. I thought that a solid leader/defensive coach, combined with bringing in a highly effective offense, would be best here.

I will be interested to see who Stefanski brings in.

There's no fun in that. I'm here for the extreme reactions on how the Browns screwed up again, and will never be good because they're clueless.

More fluff here from The Athletic?.....

Cousins liked what he saw from Stefanski in their first year together last season. Cousins set career highs in completions (425), completion percentage (70.1) and touchdowns (30) while throwing just 10 interceptions, his lowest total in his four full seasons.

They don't post anything until it is a signed deal.

The Browns’ Hiring of Kevin Stefanski Is Boring—but That May Be Exactly What Cleveland Needs

There were plenty of more interesting head coaching candidates left for Cleveland to consider, but Stefanski—who the Browns are reportedly planning to hire—represents a chance at organizational harmony. For a franchise that has been dysfunctional for years, just having all of its decision-makers working together would be a giant leap forward.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2020/1/12/21062601/cleveland-browns-kevin-stefanski-head-coach

The last seat available in the NFL’s annual game of musical chairs has been filled. The Browns have landed on their head coach of the future, and it’s not Josh McDaniels, Greg Roman, Robert Saleh, or any of the other high-profile names that have swirled around the rumor mill recently. Instead, Cleveland is reportedly set to hire Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Stefanski has been with the Vikings organization since 2006, at various times coaching the team’s running backs, tight ends, and quarterbacks. He was made the interim offensive coordinator late in the 2018 season and kept the job for 2019. He’s leaving Minnesota for the first time in 14 years, and heading to a team with enticing talent but also incredible dysfunction. Stefanski is a boring hire—but boring may be exactly what the Browns need.

This hire was a year in the making. The Browns interviewed Stefanski last offseason, and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta wanted to hire him. But then-general manager John Dorsey overruled DePodesta and the franchise went with Freddie Kitchens, who turned out to be a disaster.

Before even getting into the nuts and bolts of Stefanski’s coaching philosophy, the most important thing Stefanski can bring to the Browns is harmony. Dorsey and Kitchens are gone, which means 2020 is a chance for the Browns to end the long-standing schism in the front office between the analytics-minded DePodesta and the more traditional Dorsey. It appears Cleveland has found its path.

The Browns are also reportedly trying to bring back Eagles vice president Andrew Berry—who was the VP of player personnel for the Browns until this season—to be their new general manager. Berry “got to know” Stefanski during last season’s coaching search, per Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot. A team of DePodesta, Stefanski, and Berry would provide front-office unity that coach Jimmy Haslam has yet to experience in Cleveland. That alone fills the Stefanski hire with promise.

There is a lot to like about Stefanski as a football mind. While the tape from the team’s divisional-round loss to the 49ers is about as ugly as imaginable, the Vikings finished with the league’s 10th-best offense by DVOA, slotting 10th in passing and 15th in rushing efficiency. The team scored the eighth-most points and picked up the 16th-most yards, both improvements on 2018.

Stefanski worked with former Texans and Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak, who is the assistant head coach in Minnesota, to create a Kubiakian-style scheme that marries the running game and the passing game. Kubiak has influenced offensive play-callers like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay who seek to make the run and pass looks appear exactly the same, and Stefanski emphasized elements like play-action passing and rollouts that are essential elements in a Kubiak offense.

Stefanski sums up this philosophy best: In October, Stefanski told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero his plays need to “look like, taste like, and smell like the run.”

Setting Saturday’s underwhelming divisional-round result aside, Stefanski’s offense mostly worked. Quarterback Kirk Cousins used play-action on 31.4 percent of his dropbacks, the fifth-highest mark in the NFL. The four quarterbacks above him (Lamar Jackson, Jared Goff, Patrick Mahomes, and Jimmy Garoppolo) all have heralded play-callers calling the shots. Play-action just works—it’s the most efficient play in the league and it should probably be used more. Stefanski surely understands this, and he’s shown an interest in analytics, too, which makes him a great fit with DePodesta:


Kevin Clark
✔
@bykevinclark
I like Stefanski. We talked earlier this year about how often he reads big-picture analytics pieces and studies online. A lot of coaches, even young ones, don't seek out much info in the outside world. He does.

306
12:09 PM - Jan 12, 2020
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The Vikings’ play-action game was particularly effective. Off play-action attempts, Cousins racked up 1,373 passing yards, 14 touchdowns, and two interceptions. He averaged 9.7 yards per attempt (tied for third leaguewide) and had a passer rating of 129.2 (first).

Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield used play-action on 28.7 percent of his dropbacks, which was ninth highest—so it’s not like the Browns are strangers to the play-action game. But Mayfield did average 2.6 more yards per attempt when using play-action than when not, the third-largest differential in the NFL, so more play-action could help the Browns offense.

The emphasis on the run and play-action helped the Vikings attack downfield. Cousins threw 20-plus yards downfield on 13.7 percent of his pass attempts, the eight-highest percentage in the league. Mayfield actually attacked downfield more—he went deep on 14.2 percent—but the difference was in each quarterback’s effectiveness. Cousins had nine touchdowns and one interception on deep throws while Mayfield had seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. One of Stefanski’s first tasks in Cleveland will be figuring out how to make the most of Mayfield and Odell Beckham Jr. and clean up the Browns’ sloppy deep attack.

There are also less admirable pieces of Stefanski’s Minnesota offense. The Vikings were more efficient at passing than running (even more than just about every other team, given that passing is generally more efficient than rushing), and yet they were 30th in pass attempts and fourth in rushing attempts. Minnesota worked so hard to establish the run they ran themselves out of games. Yet this tendency may have more to do with head coach Mike Zimmer than Stefanski, as Zimmer has repeatedly stressed his belief that teams need to stick to the run. Zimmer was particularly frustrated with the lack of running game in the weeks before firing offensive coordinator John DeFilippo in 2018, and that firing led to Stefanski getting the job in the first place.

Stefanski will now have a chance to run a scheme that is entirely his own. There is no telling whether he’ll be able to solve the Browns’ dysfunction—but for now, it at least looks like the franchise is moving in the right direction.

You are assuming the Niners would let those other coaches simply walk. The trend in the NFL is to not let guys walk.

Unless Shanahan was going to block his assistants from leaving with Saleh and the Browns knew this.

He had already denied LaFleur before. Other than media speculation that Saleh was going to try and bring McDaniel or LaFleur with him, I have not seen anything that says Shanahan would approve it.

I hope they got a "yes" or a "my people will call your people" from him!

Browns hiring Kevin Stefanski as next head coach - NFL.com
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001...next-head-coach

I am thinking about starting a GoFund Me page and when it hits $1 billion I'll buy the Browns

Not true
They could have gone with Daboll

I was aware of this year's results. But that doesn't explain away giving the QB coach so much kudos for the other results when he had a much smaller impact. . . . Does Brady's QB coach get the credit for his record? Does Brees QB coach get mad props and all the credit for his performances?

I Guarantee you'd get money donated to you! But you'll need more than One Billion.

So we wasted a year...to hire the guy we should’ve hired anyway?

Watch this dude not work out either.

I have made it clear for weeks now that Saleh was my top choice.
McDaniels was 2 and I would have been good with Bieniemy or schwartz.
The only guy I had Stefanski above was Daboll.

All these years we have suffered through as Browns fans and I have remained ever faithful like most of you. I am going to give it some time but unless I am seriously impressed these next 6 months, I am cancelling my NFL ticket.

You'll be about $500M - $750M short.

For those of y’all who also watched both playoff games:

Will his system allow baker to thrive more than Kirk? Kirk had a pretty good season, and I have to believe that OBJ and Jarvis is slightly better than the elite theilen and diggs duo.

I’m not saying this is a bad hire.

What I am saying, it’s not the Cleveland Browns. It’s a billionaire from Tennessee, and a think tank from La Jolla, California.

Tennessee and California > Cleveland Browns

I guess I am in the middle on this hire. Not jumping for joy ( of the remaining guys, I thought McDaniel may be the best choice) but I guess I will wait and see until I wasted time bashing the decision. It's not like we have a choice anyway. I just hope we get some good coordinators and that Stefanski isn't looking to make major changes to the roster. I can't go through another total reset. My main positive thought is that DePodesta just might know what he is doing when it comes to picking out a coach. The only evidence I have is the Buffalo hire that looks to be pretty solid.

Josh McDaniels and Joe Lombardi? Yes, they get lots of praise.

Here's Joe's bio if you aren't familiar with him. You obviously already know about Josh McDaniels.

https://www.neworleanssaints.com/team/coaches-roster/joe-lombardi

Not to mention I think the Chubb and Hunt duo are a little more elite than the Cook and Mattison duo.

I heard that Shanny blocked LaFleur because he was not going to be the playcaller as the OC in GB but that he would let LaFluer or McDaniels go be an OC if hey were going to be given playcalling duties

Don't know how true that is but it makes sense

He was probably their 2nd choice.

I don't like these analytic guys. Give me a football guy. BRING BACK THE DORSEY.

What is this kid going to do with the Divas on this team? Odell will probably be calling his own plays by week two.

I tried liking the Haslems but I'm starting to think they are the problem with this team.

Apparently Jarvis deleted most of his Instagram account.

Maybe not a fan.

Ogunjobi? Higgins? Ogbah looks decent in KC. Njoku looked good last year. For some reason, Kitchens refused to play Higgins or Njoku this year.

I don't believe the article was written in a neutral way. I think they gavce WAY WAY more credit to Stefanski than was balanced. To me it read like the blurb that draft prospects have written about them to pump up their success/impact .... McDaniels was QB coach for a year (2004). Since then he has been OC and QB Coach ... (when he wasn't HC). Not really fair a fair comparison.

As I've said - genuinely hope he does wonderfully well.

Cool.

I don’t even care. This organization is so dysfunctional that I have no hope they can get it right.

I was hoping for Saleh, I like a lot of what I heard about him. Nobody knows which of the remaining candidates would have been the best pick, so I’ll just roll with it and hope the Haslams got lucky, because I have zero faith in them.

The angst on the board over this hire does give me hope, as many of us are usually as wrong as the dumb ass front office.

All these people wanted Saleh. Pretty sure any DC would look good given the talent on that side. I mean their front 4 is easily the best in nfl. I’d say stefanski did more with less. We’re talking about Kirk freakin cousins

The last few "boring" hires we made translated to Chud, Shurmur and Pettine.

Hmmm....until proven otherwise I will assume we will suck. Anything .500+, I guess, will be a bonus.

Jimmy's great tradition of hiring inexperienced and marginal coordinators continues.

Amazing.

New boss same as the old boss.

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Freddie 2.0!

Just checked his Twitter profile. He still likes us!

j/c

I have made no secret about my misgivings of Stefanski. A one year OC only gives him more eight more of experience in that role than Freddie had. Freddie was also a very successful position coach and performed very well in his short stint as an OC. So there certainly is a comparison to be made here.

If you look at the Vikings losses this season they didn't fair that well against tough D's.

If push had come to shove in regards to the names being discussed that were interviewed, I probably would have rolled with Robert Saleh. I think what the team needs most is discipline and a hard nosed coach the players would have no choice but to respect. I'm not saying Stefanski doesn't bring that to the table, but I haven't see anything that convinces me he does.

So there is at least part of my reasoning as to why I certainly didn't support him being chosen as our next HC.

Now some see that as a reason why I won't support him as our HC. Just like most posters on here, except those who find some deep seated need to try to hold some higher ground and a dislike for people that they wish to cling to every opinion they've had on the board, I don't remember how most of you felt about Freddie being named as our HC.

I for one didn't like the decision. I wanted the stability we had after the last half of that 2018 season. Once you go toying around with what works it often times no longer works. I wanted Williams and the entire coaching staff retained as it was. Does that mean it would have worked? nobody knows the answer to that.

But here's what I do know. I am a huge Browns fan and that has often times been a very hard thing to maintain. They make that a very difficult job sometimes. But as I did with Freddie and every other hire they've made in the FO and at the HC position, I will support them until such time as they have given me sufficient evidence to do otherwise.

When it comes to analytics we all know it plays a role on the NFL. We all know that it is a tool used by every NFL team. The semantics that's actually bantered about is how significant a role it should play. So people really put to much attention on the "for or against analytics" argument on here. Nobody is against the use of analytics.

Here's how I see the hiring of Stefanski from my perspective and it's the same way I looked at it when the Browns made Freddie the HC.

It's kind of like watching your sister marry someone you really don't care for. For the sake of your sister you support her decision and you have every hope that things will work out and he doesn't turn out to be a jack wad. That's just what family does.

j/c...

I didn't want Kevin Stefanski. I wanted Josh McDaniels. I also know next to nothing about any of these guys.

Hopefully what Stefanski will bring is any organization that is on the same page.

Haslam will find a way to mess it up.

Just miserable fans desperately trying to hang on to their misery.

I wondered just what Stefanski really did with Kirk...here


2015 WAS 16 16 379 543 69.8 4,166 7.7 29 11 101.6 26 48 1.8 5 26 186 9 3
2016 WAS 16 16 406 606 67.0 4,917 8.1 25 12 97.2 34 96 2.8 4 23 190 9 3
2017 WAS 16 16 347 540 64.3 4,093 7.6 27 13 93.9 49 179 3.7 4 41 342 13 5
2018 MIN 16 16 425 606 70.1 4,298 7.1 30 10 99.7 44 123 2.8 1 40 262 9 7
2019 MIN 15 15 307 444 69.1 3,603 8.1 26 6 107.4 31 63 2.0 1 28 206 10

2016 and 2018 look very close...Cousins hasn't won the big game yet..But what he did in Washington and what he is doing in Minnesota looks familiar