The Cleveland Browns are the Vikings' alternate reality
The Cleveland Browns are the Vikings' alternate reality
As the Vikings and Browns prepare to play, it's impossible not to see a little bit of the Vikings in Cleveland's approach under Kevin Stefanski
By Sam Ekstrom
EAGAN — Every four years, when the Vikings play the Pittsburgh Steelers, there are a dozen stories written about Mike Tomlin. How he transformed the Minnesota defense in 2006, how the Vikings would’ve looked with him as a head coach instead of Brad Childress, and how he’s spent 15 years continuing the Steelers dynasty as a defensive coach in an offensive league.
Until now, Tomlin was always the one that got away.
But Kevin Stefanski may have taken the baton from him.
While Tomlin was a one-year wonder with the Vikings, Stefanski had 14 years to build equity with the Vikings. When he departed Minnesota after a successful 21-game stretch as offensive coordinator, many inside the Vikings’ organization believed he would resurrect the woebegone Browns.
If Stefanski’s first year in Cleveland, he took a franchise that had 12 straight losing seasons and turned them around with an 11-5 record in 2020. His 2-1 start in 2021 has Cleveland favored by two points as they enter Minneapolis on Sunday. These are no longer your Rod Chudzinski Browns.
Imagine any Browns team in the 2010s being favored to win in the Vikings’ building. The Browns of the ‘20s might be a different beast.
Neither head coach in Sunday’s matchup has cut open a vein about the long-term relationship between the Cleveland coach and the Vikings organization. As Stefanski told Cleveland reporters, he’s viewing it as a “business trip.” Mike Zimmer diffused a chance to pump Stefanski’s tires when asked if he observed his head-coaching potential over the years.
“I don’t really look at things like that,” Zimmer said. “I just look at the guys and try to do the best we can each week.”
It was clear, however, that Zimmer saw enough in Stefanski to hang onto him as an assistant while the young coach received attention from other teams.
Now Stefanski is doing Vikings-esque things in Cleveland, only more efficiently. Their quarterback is cheap, their running backs are elite, their blocking is top notch, and their analytics are sound.
That doesn’t mean Stefanski will win 11 games every year in Cleveland, nor does it mean that Zimmer isn’t an above-average coach with plenty of his own strengths but their contrast in styles inevitably leads to comparisons and the thought of what might have been…
The first signs of interest
While internal figures in the Twin Cities likely knew of Stefanski’s potential, the writing was on the wall publicly in 2018 that Stefanski was headed places as a coach, probably higher than a position coach or a coordinator, and probably outside the Vikings organization.
At the time he was the Vikings quarterbacks coach who had just helped navigate Case Keenum to an NFC Championship Game. Former offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur had been hired as head coach of the New York Giants, but the Vikings overlooked Stefanski in their offensive coordinator search in favor of John DeFilippo.
After enjoying their partnership in Minnesota, Shurmur attempted to hire Stefanski away from the Vikings as his own offensive coordinator, but his attempt was rebuffed by the Vikings, who reserved the right to block Stefanski from interviewing.
“He’s a good coach,” Zimmer said when asked for his rationale. “I get criticized for blocking guys and stuff like that, but loyalty, to me, is a big thing, right?”
It would be hard to accuse Stefanski of disloyalty after sticking it out with the Vikings through multiple regime changes that required him to relearn schemes and reintegrate with a new staff.
But entering his 13th year with the Vikings in 2018, Stefanski had outgrown his position coach role, which Shurmur realized before the Vikings did. Choosing DeFilippo over Stefanski was an error in hindsight, but Minnesota was given a chance to correct that mistake 13 games into the season when DeFilippo flamed out. The door opened for Stefanski to call the offense on an interim basis, and he led the Vikings to two out of three wins.
That three-game stint was enough to earn him an interview with the Cleveland Browns, but once again, Stefanski finished as the runner-up in the interview process to Freddie Kitchens.
The Vikings could have lost Stefanski after 2017 but instead got him through 2019, where the team’s 10-6 record made him a cinch for head coaching looks. While there was reporting that Zimmer’s job was on the line heading into the Wild Card game at New Orleans, Minnesota’s overtime win put to rest any talk of his departure, and ownership negotiated an extension with the head coach that offseason.
Timing is everything. If the Vikings’ 2020 flop of a season had happened a year earlier, Stefanski might have found himself a preferred candidate to take over in Minnesota. As it stood, the Vikings had to watch from home as Stefanski’s Browns knocked off Tomlin’s Steelers in the playoffs.
“He did really good,” Zimmer said of Stefanski’s work in Cleveland. “I think Kevin’s got a great rapport with the players. He’s very analytical, knows what he wants to get accomplished. Very detailed in what he wants to do.”
Stefanski now has 21 games under his belt as a coordinator and 21 more as play-calling head coach. His win-loss record is a gaudy 27-15, good for a .643 winning percentage. It’s hard not to wonder how different things would have looked in Minnesota had he become the head coach in 2020.
Turning around Cleveland
Coaches that arrive in Minnesota are held to an expectation of annual success and Super Bowl contention. Bottoming out has rarely, if ever, been viewed as an acceptable option. In short, Vikings fans aren’t showing up to games with paper bags over their heads.
By contrast, when Stefanski reached Cleveland, the Browns had three winning seasons and 14 head coaches since 1989.
This was not a particularly high bar to clear.
“It’s a different deal there,” said co-defensive coordinator Andre Patterson, a former Browns defensive line coach. “[Stefanski]’s done a great job. They’ve been down for a long time. And they’ve had a lot of good players. When you draft in the top five picks year after year after year, you’ve got great players on your team. And they still were struggling. So he’s done a great job of figuring out the pitfalls there and what he needs to do to get that place to have success. So I have a great deal of respect for what he’s done there. But it doesn’t surprise me because of the type of person that he is.”
So how has he done it?
On one hand, he’s gotten more out of the Browns drafts than his predecessors. Inheriting an already great edge rusher in Myles Garrett (2017 draft) was huge. Having a No. 1 overall pick in Baker Mayfield (2018) gave Stefanski a high-ceiling quarterback on a rookie contract to build around. Meanwhile, Stefanski’s first draft class in 2020 has so far been a success with T Jedrick Wills, S Grant Delpit and WR Donovan Peoples-Jones all contributing.
He’s also brought a lot of his Vikings influence over to the Browns. That includes staff: special teams coordinator Mike Priefer and wide receivers coach Drew Petzing. Players: Case Keenum, Ifeadi Odenigbo and Andrew Sendejo (in 2020). And scheme: Stefanski in running a primarily wide-zone, run-first offense with just a little bit of offensive line coach Bill Callahan’s gap influence.
That scheme instantly clicked with the Browns offensive line, on which Cleveland spends the second-most cap dollars in the NFL. Pro Football Focus graded them as the No. 1 pass-blocking and run-blocking unit last season. Through three games this season they rank fourth in each category, and Mayfield has appeared to turn a corner under Stefanski’s watch.
Mayfield posted a very Cousins-y stat line in his 2020 season, tossing 26 touchdowns against eight interceptions with an efficient use of play-action. Mayfield had only two fewer play-action pass attempts than Cousins last year, throwing 12 touchdowns and one interception on those plays. His passer rating out of play-action was sixth in the NFL at 121.9. Cousins’ was 122.3.
"There is definitely some similarities to what he did [here] as far as the passing game,” co-defensive coordinator Adam Zimmer confirmed Thursday.
Stefanski’s influence was the perfect antidote for a struggling Mayfield, who threw 21 interceptions the previous season. If Stefanski learned anything from Minnesota, it’s how to mitigate a quarterbacks’ mistakes with high-percentage throws and a strong running game. In Cleveland, that running game is anchored by Nick Chubb, arguably the most efficient back in football over the last four seasons. He’s one of just three runners to average better than 5.0 yards per carry since 2018 with over 500 attempts. His 5.3 ypc is best of the three, topping Derrick Henry and Aaron Jones. (For reference, Dalvin Cook is averaging 4.7 yards per carry over that stretch.)
To recap: The line is elite, the running game is explosive, and the quarterback is improving and thus far inexpensive.
It’s good to be a Browns fan right now.
Sunday’s result shouldn’t lead to any grand conclusions about Stefanski vs. Zimmer; those will happen over time but a Cleveland win would put the Browns in the driver’s seat in the AFC and the Vikings in the basement of the NFC. It would be impossible at that point not to think about where each franchise has gone since Stefanski’s exit.
But who knows, in four years when the Vikings visit Cleveland, the articles could read differently.
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