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

[Amherstcavsfan]

This is a really good article on the NFL's offensive coaching trees.

The Defining Traits of the Coaching Trees Taking Over the NFL

What are the secrets to coaching lineages that include Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, and Andy Reid and Doug Pederson?

www.theringer.com

I would also add the Schottenheimer/Arians tree. That is what we saw this year. It generally consists of long dropbacks, shotgun, and 11 and 0 offensive formations.

The Reid tree is interesting. Those coaches use lots of RPOs, shotgun passing, and speed to attack defenses. The running game and play-action are somewhat less important than in...

The Gruden/Shanahan tree. This is the west coast, zone blocking, and play-action heavy offense. This is what Stefanski is part of and what we will see this year. My eyes tell me that Stefanski is closer to Shanahan than McVay. McVay likes speed and tends to avoid heavy formations whereas Shanahan likes heavy formations to confuse defenses while keeping the offense incredibly simple for the quarterback. This offense does require the quarterback, offensive linemen, and runningback to make reads on every play. But, if they are coached and able to do so, it is unstoppable in the hands of a good play-caller.

I think the Arians tree is dying. It is easier to defend and, as analytics on efficient passing plays continue to emerge, it is clear that this offense requires very specific players. I was ecstatic about bringing in Monken because I thought he would bring formation strategies that make this offense more efficient at the college level. Regardless if he did and Freddie just ignored it, those concepts were never adopted, and we ran some weird Arians-style offense that was ineffective.

The Reid and Shanahan trees are taking the league by storm. All four playoff teams use one of these offensive systems, and if you are not paying close attention, they look similar. Their main goal is to empower the quarterback and confuse the defense - they just do those things in different ways.

Well, here's the funny thing:

Kevin Stefanski has been brought up in both trees. I believe the guy that hired Stefanski and kept promoting him in his organization was former Andy Reid disciple in Brad Childress, which is all apart of the WCO/Gruden/Holmgren tree. He learned that offense and was in it for years.

After being named the full time OC this year, one of his assistants, Klint Kubiak, suggested that he hire Klint's father, Gary. Gary, a long time Shanny OC, came in and gave a lot of ideas and influence on Stefanski. As we can see, there is a heavy influence on Stefanski from what he did this year, but there was still some WCO elements in some of the plays.

Stefanski being in the QB Collective and having been brought through the league with Childress seems to have a major impact on his offensive style.

It's exciting, because if I had to name two of the styles of offense that fit Baker the best, it would be the Shanny model or Holmgren offense.

 

[Dr. Claw]

Well, here's the funny thing:

Kevin Stefanski has been brought up in both trees. I believe the guy that hired Stefanski and kept promoting him in his organization was former Andy Reid disciple in Brad Childress, which is all apart of the WCO/Gruden/Holmgren tree. He learned that offense and was in it for years.

After being named the full time OC this year, one of his assistants, Klint Kubiak, suggested that he hire Klint's father, Gary. Gary, a long time Shanny OC, came in and gave a lot of ideas and influence on Stefanski. As we can see, there is a heavy influence on Stefanski from what he did this year, but there was still some WCO elements in some of the plays.

Stefanski being in the QB Collective and having been brought through the league with Childress seems to have a major impact on his offensive style.

It's exciting, because if I had to name two of the styles of offense that fit Baker the best, it would be the Shanny model or Holmgren offense.

I actually agree with this.
Reading that Stefanski was the runner up to Freddie (if that was Dorsey's call.... then he really did need to GTFO) makes me feel better about it.
In recent years he's taken Vikes teams playing the likes of Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins to the playoffs, and even beating the Aints and that damn Brees offense in 2 recent cases.

I believe Baker has a higher ceiling than either of those two QBs, so getting "OC Kevin Love" as the coach as he should have been in the first place makes me optimistic in the same way the Cavs have with the Belein hire.

 

[Jordan]

Well, here's the funny thing:

Kevin Stefanski has been brought up in both trees. I believe the guy that hired Stefanski and kept promoting him in his organization was former Andy Reid disciple in Brad Childress, which is all apart of the WCO/Gruden/Holmgren tree. He learned that offense and was in it for years.

After being named the full time OC this year, one of his assistants, Klint Kubiak, suggested that he hire Klint's father, Gary. Gary, a long time Shanny OC, came in and gave a lot of ideas and influence on Stefanski. As we can see, there is a heavy influence on Stefanski from what he did this year, but there was still some WCO elements in some of the plays.

Stefanski being in the QB Collective and having been brought through the league with Childress seems to have a major impact on his offensive style.

It's exciting, because if I had to name two of the styles of offense that fit Baker the best, it would be the Shanny model or Holmgren offense.

Indeed.

Some of the key differences are zone-blocking and how the receivers get the ball. Reid relies on less zone-blocking than the Shanahan tree. In large part this is because the main goal of his offense is to get receivers in space. He uses more shotgun and receivers and runningbacks need to be fast and smart at reading their defender.

Shanahan's tree relies substantially more on play-action and under-center plays. Pre-snap motion, odd alignments, and multi-dimensional playmakers are required to confuse the defense. In this offense, your fullbacks can be x-receivers, your x-receivers can be in the slot, and your slot receivers can be runningbacks.

Again, the ultimate goal of each offense is to make the quarterback's life infinitely easier and confuse the defense. Reid's offense relies on speed and options to confuse the defense. A smart quarterback thrives here because they know where the defenders should be versus where they are - once that is figured out, the quarterback just has to throw the ball. Shanahan's relies on odd formations and play-action to achieve the same effect.

Stefanski being a student of both offenses is great for the Browns. I am excited to see Baker in this system.

 

[NorthCoastBias]

 

[Kbiz]

Some decent answers too. I know there isn't much to take away from things like this but a couple tidbits I thought were interesting was that he plans on using an aggressive attack style D and that when asked about our RB's, he refers to both Hunt and Chubb inferring Hunt is likely in the plans for next year - nothing groundbreaking but I'll take it.

 

[Wrathe]

Some decent answers too. I know there isn't much to take away from things like this but a couple tidbits I thought were interesting was that he plans on using an aggressive attack style D and that when asked about our RB's, he refers to both Hunt and Chubb inferring Hunt is likely in the plans for next year - nothing groundbreaking but I'll take it.

Resurrect the Pro Form!

 

[BooyaCS]

Kevin Stefanski Had To Promise His Kids A Dog And A Trip To Disney World To Agree To Move To Cleveland
Sports Illustrated - New Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was humble to open his press conference, thanking any number of people for this opportunity; from ownership to the coach searching committee to the Minnesota Vikings, coaches he's worked with and players he's coached. He then humanized himself by talking about his family and suggesting he bribed his three kids with the promise of a dog and a trip to Disney World in order to move to Cleveland.

Kevin Stefanski Had To Promise His Kids A Dog And A Trip To Disney World To Agree To Move To Cleveland

Quite the unimpressive introductory press conference yesterday from Kevin Stefanski, if you ask me. He had a pretty good quote when he said "I don't mind personality...personality is welcomed, product...

www.barstoolsports.com

Can't wait to see what he has to bribe the team with in order to listen to him.

Strippers and blow

 

[red.]

Breaking Down the Kevin Stefanski Offense Part I: Wide Zone Run

247sports.com

 

[Bob_The_Cat]

Some decent answers too. I know there isn't much to take away from things like this but a couple tidbits I thought were interesting was that he plans on using an aggressive attack style D and that when asked about our RB's, he refers to both Hunt and Chubb inferring Hunt is likely in the plans for next year - nothing groundbreaking but I'll take it.

Given how much he likes to run and run play-action, I don' know how you could possibly have a better pair of backs to run his offense. Hunt also probably becomes he de-facto third WR this year I would imagine. We'll certainly have a bigger WR at #3, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Hunt 3rd in catches this year.

 

[MoFlo]

 

[Jordan]

Given how much he likes to run and run play-action, I don' know how you could possibly have a better pair of backs to run his offense. Hunt also probably becomes he de-facto third WR this year I would imagine. We'll certainly have a bigger WR at #3, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Hunt 3rd in catches this year.

Only issue with Hunt is that I’m not sure how good he is at reading the defense to find holes. He’d be a good H-back in this system, but he’s worth more to other teams, so I’d expect a second round tender and to see what happens.

 

[CBBI]

Interesting remarks about Stefanski's strengths and weaknesses as a offensive coordinator from Arif Hasan of The Athletic.

In the hunt for a new OC, I think we tend to look for someone who can provide corrections to the previous OC’s deficiencies. With someone like (Norv) Turner or (John DeFilippo), it was obvious what needed to be changed. What, would you say, were the deficiencies of (Kevin) Stefanski’s game? Are we still not scheming Diggs and (Adam) Thielen to their full potential?
— JJ P.

Diggs and Thielen were running routes that nearly maximized their potential as it was — they ran routes at all three levels with a bias towards deeper routes that got them open downfield. That’s exactly how that pair should be used and stands in sharp contract to DeFilippo, who kept Diggs runner shorter routes than anyone else on the team — including Laquon Treadwell — and kneecapped his efficiency as a result.

Stefanski clearly used the most efficient setup for Cousins, too, running play-action more often than all but three teams in the NFL and keeping him under center where he’s been more comfortable. He synced those route concepts with Cousins’ dropback while also making the throws relatively easy, which is why Cousins put together his most efficient year by a number of metrics, notably adjusted net yards per attempt and PFF grade. Stefanski was also excellent at play sequencing, showing looks to teams only to work new plays out of the same looks and formations. Generally speaking, his offense produced more points than there was available talent — and a PFF study on offensive play callers confirms that finding.

His weaknesses were what doomed the offense in the division and against the 49ers, and it was primarily an inability to generate new gameplans when the initial gameplan fell apart. Both the Packers and 49ers found ways to take away play-action by taking the end-man on the line of scrimmage and having him attack the quarterback regardless of how compelling the run looks. When those teams took those away and also attacked screens, Stefanski didn’t have an answer.

In those three games, the offense scored 12.0 points per game. In the 15 other games the Vikings played this year, the offense scored 25.5 points per game after excluding defensive scores.

This isn’t completely unusual for new coordinators — it took a few years for Kyle Shanahan to get over that specific type of hump, first with the Browns then with the Falcons. Sean McVay had issues with that his first year as a head coach, too.

I would also argue that the Vikings ran too much, particularly on second-and-long. It’s unclear how much of the run/pass balance was a result of Mike Zimmer’s directives to run the ball more and how much were organically called by Stefanski.

Full Article: https://theathletic.com/1536750/202...-line-stefon-diggs-kevin-stefanski-kris-boyd/ ($)

 

[2 For The Brew]

Has anyone else let Stefanski fuck their wife yet?

"Let"????

That's hilarious.

 

[red.]

'You want to work hard for him': What Browns are getting in Kevin Stefanski

Those who have known him during his 14-year journey with the Vikings say Kevin Stefanski doesn't believe he has all the answers. And that's just what the Browns were looking for.

www.espn.com

 

[Jordan]

'You want to work hard for him': What Browns are getting in Kevin Stefanski

Those who have known him during his 14-year journey with the Vikings say Kevin Stefanski doesn't believe he has all the answers. And that's just what the Browns were looking for.

www.espn.com

I can give him twenty-some years of reasons.

The fact is, failure is caused by organizational actions, and you are in trouble if these actions become a habit. I love the Stefanski hire, I love that the Browns are leaning into organizational unity, and I love a lot of the talent on the team. But when McDaniels says he thought the organization needed to be nuked - regardless of the gumption it took to make that claim during an interview - he may not be entirely wrong. I guess we will see.

I am very hopeful that the team will make this work, hell, I am even optimistic. But it is not unrealistic to think it and Stefanski will fail - the team is coming off of a 6-10 year where the most conservative models and prognosticators had them at 8-8, and more importantly, twenty years of failing.