Now Minnesota runs a similar type offense and they win games but not championships. The Browns are going to win games but the issue is becoming more prevalent each week - stack the box to stop the run and force the Browns to beat you through the air. In Baker, the Browns have developed a pretty good game manager who completes a lot of passes that really are nothing more than an extension of the run game (dink and dunks). Baker is currently a shell of the player the Browns drafted because he's become a game manager instead of the gunslinger they drafted. The biggest problem I see is two-fold - first, if your not practicing a pass centric offense and fierce 2-minute drill then you are unprepared to turn it on when needed and two, the inability of Stefanski to make game time adjustments depending on what the other team is doing to you. However, if your not practicing the adjustments, then there's nothing to adjust too.
If you go back and look at the Vikings when Stefanski started to make a reputation for himself in 2017 with Keenum, he was a game manager, averaging about 236 ypg, then with Cousins it was about the same, 240ish yards per game for 2 years when he was the QB coach and then as the OC. He doesn't want an offense that runs through the play of the QB, he wants efficient, but not spectacular play, from his QB. In a league where half the QBs average over 250 ypg, Stefanski has never had one that did. Since Stefanski left, Cousins has been averaging 260-270 ypg.. granted the Vikings aren't winning as many games though. The one year he had an offense break into the top 10 in the NFL in yards was 2019, when the Vikings were 8th, but they were 6th in the NFL in rushing and about 23rd in passing.
His offense just isn't designed to be dynamic, it's designed to be methodical.... which is why, IMHO, when methodical isn't working and/or his teams fall behind, there is no switch to flip that makes it more dynamic. In 2019 when they were 11-7 (counting 2 playoff games), the Vikings had 1 come from behind victory... all of the rest of their wins were just like ours, where they would build a lead early and sometimes they would win comfortably, or the other times the opponent would start to come back and they would just try to hold on. If they fell behind early, they lost. Even in the comeback win where they scored 3 TDs in the 4th quarter, Cousins had 2 passes greater than 10 yards, one a bomb to Diggs for a TD and one a dump off where the guy ran for 32 yards and a TD.. so he really completed 1 pass where he threw the ball farther than 10 yards in a 20 point 4th quarter comeback.
Now, I'm not saying all of this as a negative against Stefanski, it's just who he has proven himself to be, so take it for what it is... we are having a big debate about "franchise QBs", I'm not saying Stefanski doesn't "want one", I'm just not sure he would allow one to develop. Almost all of the other QBs on the list in that thread are in the 270+ish range for ypg and almost all of them have seasons where they were closer to or over 300 ypg... I don't think Stefanski would let that happen.
