The Cleveland Browns fired their head coach Kevin Stefanski on Black Monday. Now, he has already been contacted by several NFL teams about their head coaching vacancies. Stefanski coached the Browns for
six seasons beginning in the pandemic year of 2020. He was hired at the same time as GM Andrew Berry.
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He is expected to become the head coach of another NFL club and not take the route of reverting back to a team’s coordinator, as many former head coaches do. With his calm demeanor, it would be assumed that he could slide right into a network analyst or studio job, but so far, there haven’t been any reports of this avenue.
However, the Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders, and New York Football Giants have reached out and are expected to schedule interviews, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.
While many have pegged the Giants’ opening as one of the best head coaching gigs, the Falcons have several advantages as well. Their offensive line is good with RT Jake Matthews, C Ryan Neuzil, and RG Chris Lindstrom leading the way. Lindstrom finished the year with a Pro Football Focus grade of 91.7.
Atlanta also has two choices at quarterback with the youngster Michael Penix and the veteran Kirk Cousins. Stefanski has ties with the offense, with Cousins, to their days in Minnesota. TE Kyle Pitts is a player, while RB Bijan Robinson is considered an up-and-comer, as is WR Drake London.
Not to mention the comforts of playing and practicing in a dome. There might not be a better place to just come in and have talent already situated across the entire roster.
The Giants’ job also features a young quarterback, although with lower expectations. Stefanski has already interviewed for this post; the meeting was a good first step:
“It went very well. Meeting everybody and talking it through. I think it’s going to be a long process, I really do. New York is exciting, no question. How could the Giants’ job not be? Look at the history of the Giants and their organization; it’s incredible. I got to believe everyone is interested.”
Currently, the Giants have six names on their list of possible candidates, including former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. Expect New York to do their due diligence and allow the process to play out after all of its interviews are completed.
On Friday, Stefanski met with the Ravens and was involved in a full interview. It is not known if a follow-up meeting will take place.
The Titans have an interview scheduled with Stefanski this weekend:
Both Harbaugh and Stefanski are considered hot commodities for another head coaching job. Stefanski is not considered a coaching retread, but a guy who just couldn’t get his teams over the hump and win consistently in consecutive seasons. He showed a lot of promise, even though the franchise had habitual quarterback issues throughout his tenure in Cleveland. The trade for Deshaun Watson lost years of high-round draft picks that sent the Browns on a downward spiral and elevated the team that received all of those valuable picks.
The Browns failed to show any head coaching consistency until Stefanski arrived. Ultimately, going 8-26-0 in his last two seasons was the primary reason he was released.
