Inside the Falcons’ Vision With Kevin Stefanski Leading the Way

ATLANTA – “Smooth seas don’t make a good sailor,” a simple statement by the new head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, but an interesting one.

Kevin Stefanski, who took the stage at Mercedes-Benz Stadium alongside the new president of football, Matt Ryan, knows a lot about overcoming difficulties. Both parties are well acquainted with the NFL’s rougher waters.

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The coach is leaving a team that won a combined eight games over its last two seasons and joining one that has not even had a winning record since 2017. Stefanski, who finished 45-56 over six seasons in Cleveland, is determined to learn from his past mistakes.

The Falcons are counting on it.

“We're really excited about Kevin's entire lived coaching experience from his start in Minnesota and all the different things that he did there to his time in Cleveland – the ups, the downs, the highs, the lows,” said Ryan. “I know that as a player, I learned from both. I learned from the success, and I learned from the struggles. And I was a better player as I got older as a result of both of those.”

That ‘lived experience’, despite the last two seasons of struggles, has been pretty good for Stefanski.

He received a pair of AP NFL Coach of the Year Awards, while recording two double-digit-win seasons and playoff trips in his half-decade with one of the NFL's losingest franchises. He was well regarded across the league, even after the winning dried up in Cleveland, and that is clearly reflected by the number of teams that interviewed him after the Browns fired him.

Stefanski signed on with the franchise in 2020 and led them to their first playoff win since 1994, and that came after 12-straight losing seasons in Cleveland. The Falcons are confident they have the guy who was most responsible for that quick turnaround, and that he will bring that here to Atlanta.

Josh Kendall of The Athletic reported that the Falcons conducted more than 15 interviews with former players and colleagues of Stefanski’s during the interview process. Ryan said openly on Tuesday that this was a major factor in his belief that they had their guy.

“I would say more important than anything was the reference work that we did,” Ryan said. “As impressive as Kevin is, and as much as I enjoyed the conversations that we had, the reference work… it all started to line up.

“The feeling that we were getting was matching up with the reference work that we were doing.”

That is the vision. And while a general manager has not yet been named, the ‘shared vision’ for what this franchise will look like moving forward was made clear.

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Offensively, they want a “detailed, tough, physical football team” that can run the ball effectively and be explosive in the passing game off the run. Defensively, they want a group that is “incredibly detailed, that plays with great effort and strength.”

“Playing a physical brand of football is really important,” Stefanski explained. “If you want to win in December and January and into February, you have to play that style, as we have all seen over the course of these playoffs.”

More than anything, it is a physical brand of football that the Falcons want to have.

The pieces are attractive, and attractive enough to bring in a hot candidate like Stefanski, but the Falcons are still in the early stages of the offseason. They are still in the midst of a general manager search, and the roster still has plenty of work to be done, but they feel like the vision is clear.

“One of the things Kevin has talked about is when you have the map and the terrain, and the terrain differs from the map, you go with the terrain,” Ryan explained. “We've got a vision of where we're going to go, but we know there are going to be bumps along the way, and you've got to be able to adjust and adapt to those things.”

The Falcons believe they finally have the right map, but more importantly, the right navigator. Whether Stefanski can guide them through the inevitable turbulence to come will determine if this franchise finally reaches calmer waters or continues to drift.