Will Stefanski be able to Fix the Offense? Let’s Hear what Stefanski and Zimmer Have to Say…
Joe Johnson
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Vikings fans all over the internet got what they’ve been asking for, for weeks now. The Vikings announced that first-year offensive coordinator, John Defilippo, was fired by the team late this morning. While that may seem like a stunning move by the Vikings, as Defilippo was only 13 games into his 32 (regular season) game contract (and was being called this incredibly sought after offensive mastermind not that long ago), it was clear about 12 hours before the news broke, during Monday Night Football, that something was very wrong with the Vikings offense. So wrong that the Vikings were essentially shut out by the Seahawks (When they were trying), in a game that was being called a playoff game and the biggest game of the year by many (including me and Joe Oberle on Morning Joes). With three games left and the Vikings in control of their own destiny as the sixth-seed, the Defilippo experiment needed to end if the Vikings were going to have a chance to do just that. Which raises the question… Will the interim offensive coordinator, Kevin Stefanski, be able to right the ship and get the offense (and namely its quarterback in Kirk Cousins) back playing as well as it was earlier in the season (at least until the Bills game)? What Does Zimer think? Spend a minute of your time with me and we’ll get to the bottom of this!
The media was able to discuss just that with Stefanski and Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer this afternoon via conference calbut before we get into that, I want to delve into who Stefanski is and how he might be able to fix this utterly broken Vikings offense.
Stefanski joined the Vikings in 2006, after entering the league in 2005 as an intern for the Eagles, followed by a job as the assistant director of football operations for the Steelers in 2006. He has held multiple positions for the Vikings (all over the offense), from being an assistant to the head coach/quarterbacks coach, to being a tight end/quarterback/running back coach. Stefanski has a reputation for being a quarterback guru as he was able to get borderline amazing play out of quarterbacks like Sam Bradford and Case Keenum. It’s because of that as well as his familiarity with both the players and a ton of different aspects of the team/offense, that lead to Zimmer picking Stefanski as his choice to replace Pat Shurmur last off-season. He was eventually convinced that the Eagles’ John DeFilippo was the better choice, but Zimmer kept his (good) eye on Stefanski as well by blocking the Giant’s/Pat Shurmur’s attempt to interview him and keeping him under contract against his will.
That paid off for both sides as Stefanski was named the interim offensive coordinator about 12 hours after the Vikings offense was non-existent on Monday Night in a game that was, at the time, make or break. I wrote an article over on our sister site, VikingsTerritory.com, that broke down exactly why the Vikings needed to win the game against the Seahawks, despite the fact that they knew going into the game that they’d retain the sixth seed regardless of whether or not they won or lost. That’s not just because I’ve started getting into sports betting thanks to this nj sportsbook and put some money on the Vikings at least beating the (three-point) spread. At least not completely. As the Seahawks would’ve been the first team this season the Vikings would’ve defeated that had a winning record, thus showing that making the playoffs has a point outside of the bonus check the players receive.
It’s not like the offense and/or Cousins hasn’t shown flashes of brilliance, like Cousins late in the first Packers game or his connection with Adam Thielen through the first half of the season. Knowing that this offense has and can play good should get Stefanski excited even if he clearly hasn’t been able to fix what’s broken between Cousins’ ears as his coach so far this season.
The most important aspect, to me, of Stefanski’s experience, came under Shurmur last season. He saw how the Vikings went 13-3 with a mediocre quarterback in Case Keenum as Shurmur and company essentially limited the decisions that Keenum was allowed to make on each play and while that limited what the offense could do, it also limited the mistakes that Keenum was known for (sound familiar?). Considering the fact that Cousins has thrown (and fumbled) a handful of balls that essentially ended multiple games for the Vikings, perhaps the team will go back to a more simplified offense to simply allow their playmakers to make plays.
Zimmer and Stefanski were on conference calls today to discuss the promotion and on his call, Zimmer brought up how long Stefanski has been with the team (13 seasons) and how that familiarity with the team was important. The second thing Zimmer brought up was the fact that Stefanski also has a “great grasp” on the players, according to Vikings.com.
With the number of coaching jobs he’s had, the “well-rounded” coach in Stefanski, does understand the offense more than most anyone in the league:
“I think anytime you’ve been involved in the running game and the passing game and the protection game with the tight ends, that always helps, he’s a well-rounded coach, and hopefully we can get this thing turned around.”
Strangely enough, Zimmer was asked about my theory (that he’ll draw from Pat Shurmur), after being asked whether or not he thought Stefanski would pull ideas from the other offensive coordinators (in Pat Shurmur and John DeFilippo, mainly) he’s worked under. He said it was a “possibility” and that:
“I’m not going to get into it because I don’t want to say what we’re going to do moving forward, but I think when guys get a chance to do their thing, they take little bits of pieces of what they felt was good throughout … whether it was with John or Pat or anybody else.”
In classic Zimmer style, though, he giveth and he taketh away. When asked whether or not Stefanski was the long-term answer at the OC spot, he said “We’ll see how things develop here”, followed by “I’ll try to help him the best I can” which is surprising considering how notoriously hands-off Zimmer is with his offense. Of course Stefanski isn’t going to implement an entirely new offense during Week 15 and thus is going to be pulling from the same playbook that DeFilippo left behind, but he’ll hopefully be able to select the plays from that playbook and put together a game plan that is decent enough for the Vikings to, you know, score points and, you know, run the ball in the second half. Either way, I think I’ll skip the betting this weekend.