Kevin Stefanski Already Interviewing for Giants Job

The former Browns coach is a serious candidate. Plus, updates on GM searches in Miami and Atlanta, Titans head coach targets and more in Albert Breer’s notes.

Former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski could be a fit with the New York Giants / Scott Galvin-Imagn Images

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1. Kevin Stefanski
2. Miami Dolphins
3. Atlanta Falcons
4. Washington Commanders
5. Tennessee Titans
6. Dallas Cowboys
7. Las Vegas Raiders

The NFL playoffs are here, but we’re diving in on the coaching carousel with a lot of action since Sunday night and Monday. Let’s go!

Kevin Stefanski

Former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski is already in New Jersey for his interview with the Giants, and it’s fair to say that he’s a very serious candidate.

Since he’s not working for a team, he has the advantage of being able to interview in person.

In a lot of ways, there’s a fit between him and the franchise, and there’d be a lot of good in it for quarterback Jaxson Dart, too.

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Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins are off and running with their GM interviews, with Packers VP of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan interviewing Tuesday afternoon; and 49ers execs Tariq Ahmad, RJ Gillen and Josh Williams; Eagles assistant GM Alec Halaby; and Rams assistant GM John McKay slated to sit down with the Miami front office as well.

The first thing to know: This is a Mike McDaniel–friendly list. The three San Francisco guys, of course, worked with McDaniel from 2017 to ’21. Sullivan has worked with/scouted for one of McDaniel’s closest friends in coaching, Matt LaFleur in Green Bay—ditto for McKay in Los Angeles, with Sean McVay there. Halaby is the one who’s a little bit of an outlier on the list, and an interesting name because he doesn’t necessarily fit the mold as the other five.

That’s because the Dolphins have widely been expected to seek a scouting type for the role, with the elevation of cap czar Brandon Shore. The likelihood, at the end of this, is that Miami will have a structure similar to the Lions’, Panthers’ or Rams’, where a team has three guys—the coach, the GM and the cap/analytics/operations chief—working together and all reporting to ownership. So Halaby’s fit, because of his analytics background, isn’t as clean.

As for who’s involved, the Dolphins will have owner Stephen Ross, his son-in-law Danny Sillman (who’s pretty accomplished in sports business in his own right), team president Tom Garfinkel, Shore, and advisors Dan Marino and Troy Aikman.

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Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons’ situation should become clearer later in the week, with Matt Ryan in to interview for the president of football operations position, one he’s positioned as the favorite.

For now, it’s worth digging into the existing connections to Ryan, and that starts with Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham, with a request in from the Falcons to interview him. One of Ryan’s best friends (and former Boston College teammate) happens to be Bears GM Ryan Poles, so there’s a strong link there. Cunningham’s also been close on jobs over the past few years in Arizona, Tennessee and Jacksonville.

Ryan also has ties to his former OC Kyle Shanahan, who’s worked with Williams—and Williams is interviewing, too. Both Williams and Cunningham are interviewing for the president of football operations role, and would be GM candidates if Ryan lands in that spot.

On the coaching side, it’s worth mentioning that Ryan and Vikings DC Brian Flores were teammates at BC for a year and have kept in touch. Flores, for what it’s worth, has ties to Georgia native and Texans assistant GM James Liipfert, so there could be a pairing there as well, but that’s going way down the line).

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The Commanders decided to move on from offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Washington Commanders

Commanders coach Dan Quinn cleaned out his coaching staff on Tuesday, letting both OC Kliff Kingsbury and DC Joe Whitt Jr. go, and these really are separate cases.

Kingsbury is massively popular with the players, including QB Jayden Daniels. With that established, he and Quinn met on Tuesday to talk through the future. The divide was wedged between what the Commanders felt like Daniels needed to take the following steps as a quarterback (both Quinn and GM Adam Peters have ties to the Shanahan offense), and where Kingsbury wanted to go with his unique scheme in 2026. There was fundamental disagreement there, which led to the mutual split.

As for Whitt, Quinn stripped his right-hand man, whom he brought from Atlanta to Dallas, then Dallas to Washington, of play-calling duties in midseason, so the writing was on the wall. The availability of a couple of Quinn’s old friends, Raheem Morris and Jeff Ulbrich, was part of the equation, too (we’ll see if he can lure one or the other to D.C.), as was Quinn’s desire to focus on being a head coach, rather than toggling between that job and calling plays.

That, of course, is understandable, given how important 2026 will be for Quinn, Daniels and many other folks with the team.

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Tennessee Titans

I’d expect the Titans to add to the list of head coaching candidates they have already, which includes Colts DC Lou Anarumo, Chiefs OC Matt Nagy, Broncos DC Vance Joseph, Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo and Morris, to grow in the coming days.

Packers DC Jeff Hafley, 49ers DC Robert Saleh and Rams DC Chris Shula, for example, have games this weekend, and given GM Mike Borgonzi’s experience, I could see him respecting that those teams’ focus is on the postseason, and waiting to put in requests to interview them. With the calendar set up the way it is, the Titans can’t bring them in next week, or talk to anyone working with a team until the week after, anyway.

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Dallas Cowboys

I’d expect the Cowboys to move fast in looking at defensive coordinator candidates with Matt Eberflus officially out. And looking at Brian Schottenheimer’s background, it’d be easy to look at guys who’ve worked with Dan Quinn as fits—Schottenheimer and Quinn forged a strong relationship on Mike McCarthy’s staff, to the point where Quinn tried to bring Schottenheimer to Washington with him.

Along those lines, Ulbrich and Morris are available, with the idea of a run at Flores or Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia also floating out there.

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Las Vegas Raiders

Job No. 1 for the Raiders will be to better align the organization than it was this past season.

Last year, they attempted to piecemeal an all-star staff together by pairing OC Chip Kelly and DC Patrick Graham with head coach Pete Carroll, without any of the three guys having a background with each other. The result was a lot of frustration, Kelly’s midseason firing, and Monday’s decision to start over on the coaching side.

In Tom Brady’s old place of work, there was a sign that said, “We’re not collecting talent, we’re building a team.” I’d bet he’ll do a better job of heeding that this time around.

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