BS Report: Stefanksi is In

Well. The Atlanta Falcons have their man, Kevin Stefanski, the new head coach of the Falcons hired by Matt Ryan, who floated around a little bit with John Harbaugh. But it became obvious that Harbaugh was going to New York to coach the Giants and Jaxson Dart. So instead, Matt Ryan turns to Stefanski, an experience head coach for the last six years as the head coach in Cleveland with the Browns.

First time in 29 years the Falcons have hired an experienced head coach from another job. Of course, that goes back to Dan Reeves, who was hired in 1997. He had been the head coach of the Giants and before that, the Broncos. Of course, he was successful. Stefanski has got a losing record, which is many fans. A little curious about the hire, but I think if you take a deep dive into this situation, you’ll find that Stefanski did a very good job. Six seasons, two trips to the playoffs, both years. He was the AP NFL coach of the year, and he did it amongst, just a chaotic situation. The quarterback with first Baker Mayfield and then Deshaun Watson came in via the big trade in the big contract. He was suspended. Then he got hurt. Then he got hurt again. Then he got hurt again.

And this past year the Browns had four quarterbacks like Shita Sanders and Dillon Gabriel Joe Flacco. And it was just a mess. Kenny Pickett was also involved in that. It was a mess. And so they fired Kevin Stefanski at the end of the season. But interestingly, almost immediately after he was like go by Cleveland, he was considered a top candidate around the league with all these openings, which shows you that there’s some at least respect among NFL personnel about the job that Stefanski did in Cleveland.  Now, the interesting part about him going from Cleveland to Atlanta is Atlanta doesn’t have the cleanest quarterback situation either. Of course, because of the injury to Michael Penix and then the fact that Kirk Cousins is kind of old. But Kirk Cousins was the quarterback of the Vikings, and that’s the team that Stefanski coached as an assistant before he got the head coaching job in Cleveland in 2018.

And 2019. He was the quarterback coach and then the offensive coordinator. And again, his quarterback was Kirk Cousins. So there’s a tie there as well. A little interesting and and weird. I think that the Falcons have not hired a general manager yet. Some of that is timing according to Matt Ryan. But you want everybody on the same page. They’re resuming their interviews the GM position this week, and that’s a good thing. Hopefully they’ll be on the same page. But Stefanski, with all the interest that he had from around the NFL, it’s obvious that he’s very well respected and people think that he did a good job in Cleveland. Now he’s just got to come to Atlanta and he’s got to turn things around.

Eight straight losing seasons, two straight seasons eight and nine. And hopefully the most important thing is the fit will be right between Matt Ryan, the soon to be named manager, and Kevin Stefanski. They’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think you have to be pleased even with the great candidates they handle with the coordinators, that Atlanta went down the road of finding someone who’s been in that position, someone who knows what it’s like to be a head coach, knows what it’s like to be head coach and losing atmosphere and hopefully can turn this franchise around.

So I like the hire Stefanski. I think if they couldn’t have gotten John Harbaugh and if Mike Thomas was not going to coach again, Stefanski is a good choice for the Atlanta Falcons.