After a search that saw the Falcons interview or request interviews with close to a dozen candidates, the team has hired Kevin Stefanski, making the former Browns head man and Vikings offensive coordinator the 14th full-time head coach in franchise history.
Matt Ryan’s first and arguably most consequential hire as president of football for the Falcons sees him land on the most experienced non-Mike McCarthy candidate on the market with a strong offensive background, a bet on a coach who piloted the Browns
to the playoffs in 2023 with one of the least inspiring quarterback rooms in recent memory.
Stefanski, 43, won NFL Coach of the Year twice after guiding the Browns to the playoffs in 2020 for the first time since the franchise re-joined the league in 2002 and doing it again in 2023. He followed that 2020 season up with an 8-9 season before the Browns swung the infamous trade for Deshaun Watson; Stefanski would go 7-10 in 2022 and then 11-6 in 2023 with a motley crew of quarterbacks including Watson, Joe Flacco, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, P.J. Walker, and Jeff Driscoll. After that triumph, however, the bottom fell out and the light went out of his eyes on the Browns sideline, with the team going 3-14 and 5-12 in 2024 and 2025. Stefanski was fired by Cleveland at the end of this season.
The team’s abject nosedive the past two seasons will give Falcons fans some pause, especially with the organization firing Stefanski and not general manager Andrew Berry, but we must remember that the Browns are also a pretty dysfunctional organization with increasingly shaky offensive talent. The fact that Stefanski was linked to almost every opening on the market means his star has not dimmed in league circles despite the crummy results in Cleveland. The coach still will have to prove he can build a sustained winner in Atlanta and that he can elevate Atlanta’s personnel; he had a top ten offense in terms of points scored just once during his time with the Browns.
Before his run in Cleveland, Stefanski had been with the Vikings from 2006-2019, working his way up from assistant to the head coach to offensive coordinator, with stints as quarterbacks coach, tight ends coach, and running backs coach along the way. He has a wealth of experience on offense, in other words, including play calling as both an offensive coordinator and head coach and a reputation for getting the most out of quarterbacks ranging from Kirk Cousins to Baker Mayfield to Joe Flacco. His reputation as a bright offensive mind and quarterback whisperer has taken a bit of a hit after Watson’s flameout and the team running Mayfield out of town—two things that are difficult to pin overmuch on him—but he’s a seasoned, well-regarded coach who will be counted on to get more out of Atlanta’s collection of talent. Stefanski also has boasted a versatile, effective ground game throughout his career as a coordinator and head coach, and Given the results of the last handful of seasons, it’s difficult not to be optimistic about his chances.
And make no mistake: Stefanski’s perceived mastery on that side of the ball was a driving force behind his hire. While the team will talk about his ability to build a culture (again, away from the ousized dysfunction in Cleveland) and coaching staff, the team has grown very tired of investing in offense and watching once-hot names like Arthur Smith and Zac Robinson fail to put a top-tier offense on the field. The next general manager will be asked to rebuild a decimated receiving corps and add pieces to help the team get over the hump, but at least in the short term they’ll be counting heavily on Stefanski’s ability to coax more out of Michael Penix Jr. and whatever short-term options the team adds at quarterback while putting together a consistently effective scheme that can maximize playmakers like Drake London and (especially) Bijan Robinson.
We’ll now see whether Stefanski keeps Jeff Ulbrich as defensive coordinator—a move Arthur Blank has endorsed and one that would give him the luxury of continuity and competence on that side of the ball—and how he chooses to build out his staff. Rams senior offensive assistant Alex Van Pelt is a former offensive coordinator with the Browns who could be an option, but I’d put money down on Drew Petzing in that role, as the soon-to-be-former Cardinals offensive coordinator is a man who worked closely with Stefanski for almost a decade between Minnesota and Cleveland. Tommy Rees, his offensive coordinator in Cleveland last year, is also an obvious potential choice.
Stefanski comes to Atlanta with real expectations despite the team’s embarrassing eight year streak of losing seasons, and will need to coax much more out of an intriguing but muddled roster that Arthur Smith and Raheem Morris have failed to elevate. If he can enact the quick turnaround that he managed with Cleveland, Stefanski will quickly become a very popular man in Atlanta.
