The Cleveland Browns made the expected, yet still surprising move on Monday to move on from head coach Kevin Stefanski, who won two Coach of the Year awards with the organization — while also leading the team to two playoff berths in his six year tenure, following a 25 year drought which saw the Browns only make the postseason one time.
It’s a move that feels awfully reminiscent of the Tennessee Titans firing Mike Vrabel to search for greener pastures, only to have the hiring of Brian Callahan blow up in their faces, with Vrabel going to the Patriots and turning them into one of the best teams in the AFC. While Stefanski’s regular season success hadn’t quite reached the same level of Vrabel’s, he is held in similar esteem. It’s for this reason that rumors of teams being interested in Stefanski emerged as soon as the possibility of being in fired in Cleveland were raised.
There won’t be a shortage of teams interested in the former Browns coach, and the following seem like the most likely landing spots right now.
This seems like a natural fit. Stefanski’s broad offensive coaching history would make him a fantastic hire for a team that has all the pieces on offense, but just needs someone to put it together. It became clear this year that the Giants didn’t trust Brian Daboll to mold Jaxson Dart and Cam Skatterbo, but Stefanski could absolutely be the man for the job.
New York has had a history of underwhelming coordinator hires going back a decade when Tom Coughlin led the team to prominence. Breaking that pattern and hiring Stefanski would give this team fire power at head coach, a proven commodity, and someone who could finally weaponize the considerable raw talent on the roster.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however. One of the major sticking points with Stefanski in Cleveland was a lack of input he had on roster decisions. First saddled with the Deshaun Watson debacle, then two rookie quarterbacks he seemingly had no passion for, this could be a hard sell unless Stefanski believes Dart can be a franchise QB. Not only have the Giants cast their lot with the rookie QB, but currently don’t have the salary cap space to make big moves in free agency. Essentially Stefanski would need to buy into the roster the Giants have right now, and think he can win with them.
The Titans would be fools if they didn’t try to correct history. Firing Mike Vrabel was such a colossal misstep that it’s going to hurt for a while, but there’s a new sheriff in town with GM Mike Borgonzi who took over the job in 2025. This could be the signature hiring that gets the Titans back on track, and the splashy move the team needs to make at coach to lift the team ahead of their new stadium opening.
In some ways the Titans have a similar QB conundrum as New York with Stefanski needing to have faith in Cam Ward, but there are two big differences: Ward showed real spark towards the end of the season that he was starting to put things together, and Tennessee is set to have a mind-boggling $105M in open cap space this season.
That would allow Stefanski to have substantial say in the players he wants to bring in, with the ability to collaborate with Borgonzi on the state of the roster. The two have similar football sensibilities, which would make this a solid fit — assuming Stefanski is willing to take on another deeply struggling roster.
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There’s been some speculation that Pete Carroll could be a one-and-done head coach, with the experiment to pull the Seahawks’ architect back into coaching being a massive screw up. It feels like Carroll doesn’t have the magic anymore, and the Raiders are in a position where they have to have a leadership group they believe in ahead of the No. 1 overall pick.
That would be the big allure here. With the No. 1 pick and a need for a quarterback it would represent the first time that Stefanski would really get to choose his guy under center. That’s likely Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, who has shown a willingness to be a no-nonsense, structured player who Stefanski could do a lot with.
Pair this with the $100M in cap space the Raiders are set to have and Las Vegas represents the most latitude to have control of any situation in the NFL.
This is pure speculation, but at this point in Sean McDermott’s tenure the team has to see some results in the playoffs beyond getting a participation ribbon. The 2025 season marks the one chance Buffalo gets a free bracket without needing to worry about the Chiefs playing spoiler, and that has led to some lofty expectations that the Bills can make a serious playoff run with experience on their side.
But what if they don’t?
If this is another early-playoff flameout, and the Bills lose to the Jaguars in the Wild Card round, at what point does the franchise say enough is enough? Stefanski has the experience to take over and potentially get the Bills over the hump, and the roster is more or less plug-and-play, outside of a few needed upgrades. The only scenario where we can see the Bills parting ways with McDermott is if they have someone reliable in the wings, and Stefanski is as reliable as you’ll get this cycle.
The assumption around the NFL is that John Harbaugh will be safe, which feels both right — and wrong at the same time. There’s no doubt the Ravens have hit a ceiling, and it’s unclear whether or not the team is willing to make a bold move to try and take a step forward.
This would be the ultimate revenge job for Stefanski who would get to try and stick it to the Browns twice and year and regret their decision. The downside is that he’d need to see Myles Garrett twice a year, which might make Stefanski regret his decision.
I don’t know what the Bucs see in Todd Bowles, but it seems the team is thinking long and hard about their coach’s future. This is a team that underachieved at the back end of the season to dramatic levels, while Bowles threw his own players under the bus. It’s unclear if there’s a way to mend all the relationships damaged over the Tampa losing streak.
Stefanski would be a mammoth upgrade at head coach. The core issue is whether or not he’d be willing to work with Baker Mayfield again.
