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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
You know you've set a culture when it permeates without you physically being there.

This is no mirage. The Browns do things the right way, and they clearly take pride in it. That is Stefanski's biggest accomplishment.

The fact that his football decisions have worked out as well, for me, is just gravy in year one. Fucking tasty gravy though.
 
Clooney will 80 when Stefanksi retires in 20 years at the age of 58.
Fine Ryan Gosling then

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Probably better than if Hue/Freddie were actually there...

There was a lot of talk about how tough it is to change a team's culture, and how long it takes, but I don't think that's really true. If you have the right leadership, it actually can turn around pretty quickly. While us fans have all endured this crap for decades, most players haven't, so "bad culture" isn't as ingrained in a team as we may think it is.

Plus, most people/athletes crave a positive culture, and will latch onto it with a death grip if you can offer it to them. So good leadership, some wins...and all of a sudden you can create a group of believers pretty quickly. They'll forget about the shitty culture pretty damn fast because they want to forget about it.

The turnaround in this team's culture was apparent early on this season, even if we weren't winning. Guys hung in there even after the opening day disaster precisely because that cultural change already had begun even before we had a single win.

Berry, Stefanski, and their respective staffs just deserve a ton of credit for coming up with the right cultural plan, and sticking to it.
 
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FYI: interesting tidbit from PFF. Again, not crazy about PFF, but this was a concern I raised during the summer. McDaniels is not actually a good offensive playcaller and it still remains unclear, to me, if he will be a good head coach. His metrics - regardless if you are using PFF's black box, EPA, WPA, or CPOE - have been poor for about three straight years.



JOSH MCDANIELS — OC, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

After rescinding his acceptance of the Indianapolis head coaching position prior to the 2018 season, McDaniels has fallen each year in our offensive play caller rankings, down to 30th in the NFL in 2020.

Without Tom Brady in 2020, the Patriots' offense finished 23rd in yards per play and 23rd in net adjusted yards per passing play. In his prior life as a head coach who called plays for the Broncos, McDaniels finished 17th and 30th in our rankings, leading to an early dismissal.

It will be interesting to see what people are interested in, given McDaniels' history and that of most other Bill Belichick disciples when they leave the nest.
 


This is the kind of stuff you love to see from Stefanski.

The guy got a crash course for a year with one of the OG's of the wide zone scheme in Gary Kubiak and everyone and their brother this time last year expected him to come in and be a Kubiak clone.

But when he actually got into his own head coaching job, he wasn't a pure Kubiak clone. Instead he opted to use elements of the wide zone scheme with elements of a power gap scheme and he had the foresight to hire one of the best OL coaches in the business who just so happened to be well schooled in both schemes.
 


This is the kind of stuff you love to see from Stefanski.

The guy got a crash course for a year with one of the OG's of the wide zone scheme in Gary Kubiak and everyone and their brother this time last year expected him to come in and be a Kubiak clone.

But when he actually got into his own head coaching job, he wasn't a pure Kubiak clone. Instead he opted to use elements of the wide zone scheme with elements of a power gap scheme and he had the foresight to hire one of the best OL coaches in the business who just so happened to be well schooled in both schemes.
Any chance we have similar numbers for San Francisco over the past two years, and the Rams over the past three years?

I have a feeling that our splits would closely resemble the 49ers and Shanahan (although I don't know about this year. That team was wrecked by injuries--hence the 2019 request). I have a feeling that McVay was much heavier on wide zone the year they went to the Super Bowl. That was exploited by Belicheck and the offense got shut down. I believe McVay has adjusted since then--most notably out of necessity towards the end of 2019 due to all of their offensive line injuries.
 
Any chance we have similar numbers for San Francisco over the past two years, and the Rams over the past three years?

I have a feeling that our splits would closely resemble the 49ers and Shanahan (although I don't know about this year. That team was wrecked by injuries--hence the 2019 request). I have a feeling that McVay was much heavier on wide zone the year they went to the Super Bowl. That was exploited by Belicheck and the offense got shut down. I believe McVay has adjusted since then--most notably out of necessity towards the end of 2019 due to all of their offensive line injuries.


Maybe...although I do agree with @CBBI that Callahan has been perhaps the pivotal figure in the type of running game we use. He's had experience with both, and if you're an HC who affirmatively sought out a guy like Callahan, why wouldn't you listen to him regarding the style of runs?

Gotta say that Callahan himself must have salivated when he realized what he had with Bitonio, Tretter, and Teller all being able to pull and trap like they do. So many just devastating gap plays we can run with those guys.
 
Maybe...although I do agree with @CBBI that Callahan has been perhaps the pivotal figure in the type of running game we use. He's had experience with both, and if you're an HC who affirmatively sought out a guy like Callahan, why wouldn't you listen to him regarding the style of runs?

Gotta say that Callahan himself must have salivated when he realized what he had with Bitonio, Tretter, and Teller all being able to pull and trap like they do. So many just devastating gap plays we can run with those guys.
Not to mention tight ends and receivers who take pride in their blocking, and a couple of elite running backs.

Dream scenario for an OL coach.
 
Not to mention tight ends and receivers who take pride in their blocking, and a couple of elite running backs.

Dream scenario for an OL coach.
I know it’s been said in here (and other places) over the course of the season, but how awesome is it that the Browns have so many willing and able blockers on their team?

Not just talking linemen, but tight ends, running backs, wide receivers, and hell, I’m pretty sure you could dig up footage of Baker throwing a couple himself.

Complete culture change. Love to see it.

That’s my Coach of the Year.
 
The case could be made that Bill Callahan and Chad O'Shea are the best coaches in the NFL at their respective positions and Stefanski, a 37 year old kid by NFL coaching standards, got both of them to join his staff.

The ability to identify and develop assistant coaching talent is a highly underrated skill for head coaches.
 
I know it’s been said in here (and other places) over the course of the season, but how awesome is it that the Browns have so many willing and able blockers on their team?

Not just talking linemen, but tight ends, running backs, wide receivers, and hell, I’m pretty sure you could dig up footage of Baker throwing a couple himself.

Complete culture change. Love to see it.

That’s my Coach of the Year.

Even David Njoku learned how to block by December.

And not just his own teammates any more.

 


This is the kind of stuff you love to see from Stefanski.

The guy got a crash course for a year with one of the OG's of the wide zone scheme in Gary Kubiak and everyone and their brother this time last year expected him to come in and be a Kubiak clone.

But when he actually got into his own head coaching job, he wasn't a pure Kubiak clone. Instead he opted to use elements of the wide zone scheme with elements of a power gap scheme and he had the foresight to hire one of the best OL coaches in the business who just so happened to be well schooled in both schemes.

I think right up there with the most important traits for successful head coaches is to be open minded and willing to adapt to new information.

You see this all over this team with the way the Browns have adopted analytics in aggressively throwing early in the game to build leads, going for it on 4th down, clock management, etc.

You also see it with the way he's blended together many different offensive concepts into a cohesive vision, together with adapting to personnel AND the week to week variations to attack opponent weaknesses (getting Landry on Pitt linebackers).

Finally, you see it with the way he constantly empowers his assistants behind the scenes (with giving them responsibility and the ability to contribute to gameplans) and in the media.
 

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