Very Soon, The Vikings Could Shake Up the Strategy with a Bold Hire
If the expected occurs, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski will soon be shown the door.
Coach Stefanski is good at what he does, as he demonstrated in different jobs with the Vikings. Sinking the Cleveland Browns — a franchise that consistently puts a new meaning on dysfunctional — has been the historically-awful Deshaun Watson trade. The coach’s part within that ghastly trade is beyond my capacity to discern. What I can say is that there’s a track record of Stefanski proving excellence without Watson.
Vikings Can Go Bold with a New Coach Hire
The connections between the team and Kevin Stefanski are fairly obvious.
The former Minnesota coach worked his way up through the organization. Eventually, he became one of the many OCs for Mike Zimmer. Like Pat Shurmur, Stefanski was so successful that he got stolen by a rival team to become a head coach. Notably, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was operating as a top executive in Cleveland’s front office when Coach Stefanski was doing his work in Ohio.
Dig into Stefanski’s history some more. What would you find? A coach who has earned his spot in the NFL.
In 2006 when he was just 24, Stefanski was an enigmatic “assistant” with the Vikings. He then worked as assistant QB coach from 2009-2013. Afterwards, there was a pit stop as the tight end coach for Minnesota from 2014-2015. The 2016 season involved Stefanski being the running back coach before he then was the quarterback coach from 2017-2018. In 2019, Stefanski was the OC. That was the season where Kirk Cousins earned his first — and only — playoff victory.
The 2020 season onward has involved Kevin Stefanski being the head coach of the Browns.
He has since won a pair of Coach of the Year awards. The 2020 season involved going 11-5 before taking down the Steelers in the playoffs. That’s stunning success for Cleveland. Next up for promising years was an 11-6 record in 2023 — Joe Flacco played well for them — before moving into very poor seasons in 2024 and 2025.
One has to assume that Stefanski is going to get canned. Is that what he fully deserves? No, but it could be a merciful end for him, releasing him into an NFL that should be keen to give him some employment.
Whether that employment arrives in Minnesota will be fascinating.
Lately, Kevin O’Connell has been calling much better games. The run game is now a feature of the offense rather than an annoying add-on that seldom gets used. The screen game has grown more dangerous and the reads appear to be simple for the young passer (when he’s not hurt).
Handing over play calling just as Coach O’Connell appears to be figuring out how to make Mr. McCarthy look promising appears unlikely.
There’s then another thorny issue: what to do with current OC Wes Phillips.
To my eye, Coach Phillips is good at what he does. He’s a charming guy, something that sometimes get lost within his dry sense of humor. Previously, the NFL has demonstrated some interest in him but he has been loyal to the Vikings, making a divorce painful and (quite likely) misguided.
So, the Kevin Stefanski add has at least a few hurdles.
To start, he needs to get fired. That appears likely but isn’t certain. He could attract interest around the league given his capacity to find success with Kirk Cousins, Baker Mayfield, and Joe Flacco. Give him a passable passer and he can do well (a team like Cincinnati, currently employing an elite Joe Burrow, would be wise to give Stefanski a call if he gets fired).
But then there’s the connection to Minnesota alongside a history of working alongside Adofo-Mensah. Could he get grafted onto the coaching staff? If so, could he slide into an assistant head coach job or some sort of similarly nebulous job description?
Onboarding an accomplished coach — one who could reasonably succeed with play calling, if there ends up being a need — appears to be a wise way to shake up the team (albeit complicated).
Next up for the Vikings is a Christmas clash with the Lions. The current coaching staff, complete with strengths and foibles, is chasing a .500 record.
