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The Kevin Stefanski: Two-Time Coach of the Year Thread

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Grade the signing

  • A+ -Awesome Analytics Alignment!

    Votes: 55 30.9%
  • A - Good choice moving forward

    Votes: 53 29.8%
  • B - Better than the other options

    Votes: 20 11.2%
  • C - Could work out I guess

    Votes: 30 16.9%
  • D - Browns done put their foot in it again, but at least he looks good on TV

    Votes: 9 5.1%
  • F - A failure on every level

    Votes: 11 6.2%

  • Total voters
    178
It's particularly impressive in that he also is calling his own plays. That's a lot of balls to have in the air without dropping one. Must be fantastic at working with his subordinates to keep himself on track.
From the weekly press conferences, I think what’s most impressive is that the assistant coaches all sound like a head coach for their own little part of the game. Even AVP, he preps the offense, works with Stefanski to create the gameplan, etc.

To me, that is a sign of great leadership. The assistants seem proud of what they’re doing, which means Stefanski is empowering and that this is sustainable.
 
From the weekly press conferences, I think what’s most impressive is that the assistant coaches all sound like a head coach for their own little part of the game. Even AVP, he preps the offense, works with Stefanski to create the gameplan, etc.

To me, that is a sign of great leadership. The assistants seem proud of what they’re doing, which means Stefanski is empowering and that this is sustainable.

Hopefully someday we're talking about the wildly successful Stefanski coaching tree.
 
We are doing a great job at managing the clock and ending drives with points before halftime. I am a bit worried that our offense has come out flat in the 3rd quarter the last two weeks but our defense has been opportunistic which has helped. A small criticism but it's not like we can bet on TOs remaining consistent.
 
It's particularly impressive in that he also is calling his own plays. That's a lot of balls to have in the air without dropping one. Must be fantastic at working with his subordinates to keep himself on track.

I never really had an issue with this.

I just think people were gun shy because of how it went with Hue and Freddie, but if you look around the league - almost every head coach with an offensive background calls their own plays.

There are 17 NFL head coaches who came from the offensive side of the ball and I believe 13 of them call their own plays.

Of the four who do not - Mike McCarthy, Bruce Arians, Doug Marrone and Anthony Lynn - three of them did at their previous stops/earlier in their tenure at their current job.
 
I never really had an issue with this.

I just think people were gun shy because of how it went with Hue and Freddie, but if you look around the league - almost every head coach with an offensive background calls their own plays.

There are 17 NFL head coaches who came from the offensive side of the ball and I believe 13 of them call their own plays.

Of the four who do not - Mike McCarthy, Bruce Arians, Doug Marrone and Anthony Lynn - three of them did at their previous stops/earlier in their tenure at their current job.

I didn't either. I was just saying that 0 procedure penalties from a brand new coach who also is calling his own plays is impressive.
 
I've noticed numerous times that we get to the end of a half and still have all or most of our timeouts. Also, the offense never seems rushed to get a play off in time. These things matter.

Freddy was just unlucky. Who here really expects expects a football coach to be able to accurately predict, in advance, when the play clock is going to expire? The science behind the play clock is unfathomable!

Joking. Freddy's game clock management was on par with Hue (clueless), the penalty situation was unbearable (I don't coach penalties!) and I was tearing my hair out watching the team saunter towards the line of scrimmage with the play clock in single digit over any over again last year. Were they drawing up new plays in the huddle or something? Discussing dinner plans? Who knows. Now it seems like Baker starts his cadence with 12 seconds on the clock, every play. The part where the team has gotten out of the bottom 10% of the league as far as penalties go is also such a relief.

It is so awesome to see the Browns playing like they have a coach who knows what is going on. Could not be happier.
 
Freddy was just unlucky. Who here really expects expects a football coach to be able to accurately predict, in advance, when the play clock is going to expire? The science behind the play clock is unfathomable!

Joking. Freddy's game clock management was on par with Hue (clueless), the penalty situation was unbearable (I don't coach penalties!) and I was tearing my hair out watching the team saunter towards the line of scrimmage with the play clock in single digit over any over again last year. Were they drawing up new plays in the huddle or something? Discussing dinner plans? Who knows. Now it seems like Baker starts his cadence with 12 seconds on the clock, every play. The part where the team has gotten out of the bottom 10% of the league as far as penalties go is also such a relief.

It is so awesome to see the Browns playing like they have a coach who knows what is going on. Could not be happier.

2019 sounds like one of the most dysfunctional seasons from a coaching perspective in Browns history and that's saying something.

A variety of rumors out there...

1. Kitchens wasn't allowed to hire his own staff. Dorsey forced Monken, Wilks, Priefer, Campen and others on him.

2. One of the few coaches Kitchens did actually hire on his own, Ryan Lindley, was completely unqualified to be an NFL QB coach and was tasked with replacing replaced a well-respected and experienced QB coach in Ken Zampese.

3. Kitchens was *allegedly* very insecure about having Monken forced on him and - if you believe the rumors - simply refused to listen to him and refused to involve him in game planning or play calling to the point of literally drawing up and calling plays the team hadn't practiced during the week.

4. Kitchens might not have been a skilled offensive coordinator in the first place. Bob Wylie (and there is the possibility Bob simply has sour grapes from getting fired) suggested that Freddie never actually knew what he was doing and that Zampese was essentially the shadow offensive coordinator in the second half of 2018. Wylie went so far as to say the rest of the offensive coaching staff dumbed down Todd Haley's existing offense to the point where Freddie simply had to look at a play sheet with numbers on it.
 
2019 sounds like one of the most dysfunctional seasons from a coaching perspective in Browns history and that's saying something.

A variety of rumors out there...

1. Kitchens wasn't allowed to hire his own staff. Dorsey forced Monken, Wilks, Priefer, Campen and others on him.

2. One of the few coaches Kitchens did actually hire on his own, Ryan Lindley, was completely unqualified to be an NFL QB coach and was tasked with replacing replaced a well-respected and experienced QB coach in Ken Zampese.

3. Kitchens was *allegedly* very insecure about having Monken forced on him and - if you believe the rumors - simply refused to listen to him and refused to involve him in game planning or play calling to the point of literally drawing up and calling plays the team hadn't practiced during the week.

4. Kitchens might not have been a skilled offensive coordinator in the first place. Bob Wylie (and there is the possibility Bob simply has sour grapes from getting fired) suggested that Freddie never actually knew what he was doing and that Zampese was essentially the shadow offensive coordinator in the second half of 2018. Wylie went so far as to say the rest of the offensive coaching staff dumbed down Todd Haley's existing offense to the point where Freddie simply had to look at a play sheet with numbers on it.

Which begs the question...

If these rumors were actually all true, did John Dorsey not realize this was happening or did he know it was happening and not care?

Because it sure seems like he went out of his way to hire the least qualified candidate (and I admit I was fully on board with Freddie, but I don't have the same level of behind-the-scenes access) because Kitchens would be the easiest coach for Dorsey to control.

Dorsey's quest for ultimate power within the Browns organization is ultimately what led to his firing.
 
2019 sounds like one of the most dysfunctional seasons from a coaching perspective in Browns history and that's saying something.

A variety of rumors out there...

1. Kitchens wasn't allowed to hire his own staff. Dorsey forced Monken, Wilks, Priefer, Campen and others on him.

2. One of the few coaches Kitchens did actually hire on his own, Ryan Lindley, was completely unqualified to be an NFL QB coach and was tasked with replacing replaced a well-respected and experienced QB coach in Ken Zampese.

3. Kitchens was *allegedly* very insecure about having Monken forced on him and - if you believe the rumors - simply refused to listen to him and refused to involve him in game planning or play calling to the point of literally drawing up and calling plays the team hadn't practiced during the week.

4. Kitchens might not have been a skilled offensive coordinator in the first place. Bob Wylie (and there is the possibility Bob simply has sour grapes from getting fired) suggested that Freddie never actually knew what he was doing and that Zampese was essentially the shadow offensive coordinator in the second half of 2018. Wylie went so far as to say the rest of the offensive coaching staff dumbed down Todd Haley's existing offense to the point where Freddie simply had to look at a play sheet with numbers on it.

That's horrific, and if true, it's on Dorsey. He picked Freddie, and he's the experienced guy who failed to keep that shit from happening.
 
Which begs the question...

If these rumors were actually all true, did John Dorsey not realize this was happening or did he know it was happening and not care?

Because it sure seems like he went out of his way to hire the least qualified candidate (and I admit I was fully on board with Freddie, but I don't have the same level of behind-the-scenes access) because Kitchens would be the easiest coach for Dorsey to control.

Dorsey's quest for ultimate power within the Browns organization is ultimately what led to his firing.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Dorsey picked a guy who would owe everything to him and thus back in him his power struggle to get rid of DePodesta and gain full control in the organization. The problem is that he also picked a guy who was so obviously in over his head and losing the team that it sank them both, especially in the light of the news that Dorsey wanted to give Kitchens another year.
 
I think you hit the nail on the head. Dorsey picked a guy who would owe everything to him and thus back in him his power struggle to get rid of DePodesta and gain full control in the organization. The problem is that he also picked a guy who was so obviously in over his head and losing the team that it sank them both, especially in the light of the news that Dorsey wanted to give Kitchens another year.

I think you're onto something here.

Dorsey wanted DePodesta gone, but didn't have the authority to fire him.

The best path to making it happen would be to completely ignore everything Paul wanted to do, including hire a coach who would ignore the analytics, and have a successful season with a coach who owed his job to him.

From there, Dorsey would have all the ammo needed to have Paul removed and take ultimately seize full control over the organization.

Dorsey just underestimated how truly awful Kitchens was going to be and that sunk them both.
 
I think you're onto something here.

Dorsey wanted DePodesta gone, but didn't have the authority to fire him.

The best path to making it happen would be to completely ignore everything Paul wanted to do, including hire a coach who would ignore the analytics, and have a successful season with a coach who owed his job to him.

From there, Dorsey would have all the ammo needed to have Paul removed and take ultimately seize full control over the organization.

Dorsey just underestimated how truly awful Kitchens was going to be and that sunk them both.

He also underestimated the Haslams. Dorsey was probably betting on them being impatient with DePodesta and scrapping his whole approach which would lead to us being an old school run football team under Dorsey. The problem was that the end results were so shitty that the Haslams just couldn't hear it anymore from Dorsey.
 

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