The Atlanta Falcons should be real lucky to have Kevin Stefanski right about now. While he's out there assembling an all-star coaching staff, he's also silencing the many doubters who are questioning Matt Ryan's decision. And all of that negative attention in the media is starting to age real poorly.
Thankfully, unlike John Harbaugh, Stefanski didn't put all his eggs in one basket in the Falcons' OC search. The Giants fully expected to land Todd Monken as OC, but when he spurned them for the Browns' head coaching job, they were forced to pivot before hiring Matt Nagy as their new play-caller.
The main allure of hiring the 63-year-old beyond his winning pedigree is that his track record would attract several top-flight coaches to want to join his coaching staff. That was clearly overblown, as that resulted in two below-average coordinators ending up in New York, which is pretty hilarious.
Kevin Stefanski has quietly assembled a better coaching staff than John Harbaugh after Giants hire Matt Nagy as OC
The difference between Harbaugh and Stefanski is that basically every assistant coach Harbaugh hired was either someone he's coached with before or has ties to his coaching tree. Stefanski hired some coaches he's familiar with too, but was willing to retain good coaches from the previous regime and hire coaches he has yet to work with.
After retaining Jeff Ulbrich--which was another big win-- he was able to keep virtually the entire defensive coaching staff. The Dirty Birds also retained Michael Pitre and Kevin Koger on offense, but Harbaugh's ego prevented him from keeping good coaches like Carmen Bricillo in the building.
In his last seven seasons as a play-caller (most of which came with Patrick Mahomes at QB), Nagy led just one unit that finished top 10 in total offense. At least while Tommy Rees is inexperienced, he's a coach with untapped potential, we know exactly what Nagy is as an OC, which is an uninspired hire.
Another core difference is that while Rees is the one calling plays, it's still Stefanski's scheme. Nagy is directly impacting the development of Jaxson Dart. At least I can sleep at night knowing Michael Penix Jr. is in good hands, but Dart is being coached by the guy who helped ruin the Chiefs' offense.
There's a fine line between hiring coaches you're familiar with and trust and turning a coaching staff into your boys club, which Harbaugh seems to have forgotten. Giants fans are getting so frantic over the hire that their own beat reporters had to do damage control on social media. That is pathetic.
There have been too many people dumping on Stefanski's time with the Browns calling him one of the worst hires of this coaching cycle even though he's one of three coaches with past head coaching experience. He deserves more grace than that, especially given what he accomplished in Cleveland.
He was already one of the best hires of the offseason, but the more his fellow two-time Coach of the Year stumbles, the better he looks inheriting a roster already more built to compete.