Report: Browns to hire Kevin Stefanski as head coach

The Cleveland Browns have made their head coach decision, according to NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport. He is reporting the team is set to hire Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski. A year ago, Stefanski was viewed as the runner-up to Freddie Kitchens. The team had interviewed a host of other candidates, including Josh McDaniels, Robert Saleh, Jim Schwartz, Brian Daboll, Greg Roman, and Eric Bieniemy.

A Vikings reporter recently described him as a player’s coach who was up on the analytics side of things.

“He’s going to be a front-office coach because he’s deep into analytics, so he’s got that new-school kind of vibe, but he’s not as creative as some of the Kyle Shanahan kind of guys. He’s more of the old-school style mixing in new-school tools on how to beat the opponent each and every week.”

Stefanski has spent virtually his entire coaching career with the Vikings. After one season as Penn’s assistant director of football operations, Stefanski joined the Vikings as assistant to the head coach. He moved on to assistant quarterbacks coach, and then coached in order, tight ends, running backs, and quarterbacks. In 2018, he was named interim offensive coordinator and became the permanent OC in 2019.

In the past three seasons, he oversaw Case Keenum’s career year and then Kirk Cousins’ best season to date.