While the Cleveland Browns deliberated on their highly speculated head coach decision on Tuesday afternoon, the man they moved on from, Kevin Stefanski, was officially introduced as the new head man of the Atlanta Falcons.
Cleveland’s slow and mysterious process has frustrated fans, as some well-respected head coach candidates like Mike McDaniel, Jesse Minter and Grant Udinski all removed themselves from consideration over the past week. The latest Browns rumors suddenly feel like a worst-case scenario, with the team reportedly circling all the way back to current defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz as the proverbial leader in the clubhouse.
We should finally get an answer by Tuesday night, but if Schwartz is indeed the Browns' pick, these past three-plus weeks of speculation will feel like a major waste of everyones' time and energy.
Schwartz worked as a key voice and leader on Stefanski’s staff for the last three years in Cleveland. If he's really the best option, why fire Stefanski in the first place? The Browns could’ve run it back for one more season and then reconvened on the matter in 2027, when the Deshaun Watson fiasco will finally be behind them.
As Browns fans would expect, Stefanski spoke highly of his time in Cleveland during his near hour-long introductory press conference, and vowed to take the hard lessons he learned there and be better for them in his new role with the Falcons. He was asked a wide range of questions, including about Tommy Rees, the offensive coordinator he poached from Cleveland, and Baker Mayfield, the QB he spurned and still appears to have an unresolved conflict with.
Mayfield stoked the flames earlier this month when he tweeted a pointed message on Stefanski shipping him away “like a piece of garbage” and never bothering to check in with him again with a phone call or text message. Stefanski was given a chance to respond during his Tuesday presser, and his answer was the type Browns fans heard over and over during his six years in Cleveland.
Kevin Stefanski just showed Browns fans why he’s so hard to hate
It’s extremely difficult for anyone outside of the Browns’ locker room to paint Kevin Stefanski in a negative light. Even through the worst of times, he handled himself like a true professional both on the sideline and at the podium.
Browns fans will remember him responding to reporters on a first-name basis. He did the same thing with Falcons reporters Tuesday, often intentional on using the reporter’s name as he carefully answered each question.
All fans of the team can really do is speculate about how Stefanski treats his players behind closed doors. Mayfield certainly tried to project his former coach as the bad guy, but true to form, Stefanski wasn’t going there when asked about Mayfield’s viral comments, which included a challenge of now facing one other twice a year in the NFC South.
“Yeah, you know, Baker’s somebody that I have a ton of respect for as a player and a person,” Stefanski said. “I love rivalries in sports, and obviously, Buccaneers-Falcons have a great rivalry. It’s something that I’m excited about. But I would not get into the specifics of those types of things, other than to say I have a ton of respect for Baker as a player, as a person. That’s a great team with a great player” at quarterback.
For what it’s worth, Atlanta’s most bitter rival is actually the New Orleans Saints. So, if Stefanski really loves rivalries, he’ll get that straight eventually.
His response on Mayfield was quintessential Stefanski, though. He’s never going to feed a narrative or talk down to a player or coach in a public forum. Even when asked point-blank about something controversial, he has a natural way of answering the question in a way that comes off polite and doesn’t really reveal anything of substance.
Obviously, the Browns never would’ve replaced Mayfield with Deshaun Watson had Stefanski truly respected Mayfield as a franchise quarterback. The Browns cut him loose a year early, and while they had their reasons (Mayfield wasn’t exactly campaigning for a second contract in Cleveland at the time), it’s a decision that’s aged about as poorly as any in the franchise’s history.
Only Stefanski himself and his closest confidants know how he truly feels about Mayfield, and facing the Bucs twice a year with the Falcons going forward. As Browns fans know, he’s an expert at killing a negative storyline with kindness, and this was just the latest example.