ATLANTA — Head coach introductions in the NFL follow a predictable formula. The new guy proclaims how excited he is to be here with [insert team name], how he’s always admired [owner], how he’s looking forward to getting to work. The team declares how [new coach] is the guy they wanted all along. Everybody smiles and poses with a helmet … and everybody hopes they’re not doing the same dance two or three years from now.
The Atlanta Falcons officially introduced new head coach Kevin Stefanski on a frigid Tuesday morning at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a press conference long on confidence and short on specifics. Newly crowned President of Football Matt Ryan began the proceedings with some discussion about what the Falcons’ identity should be going forward.
“The main thing was we wanted a detailed, tough, physical football team,” Ryan said. “On offense, we want an offense that has the ability to run the football, that is going to be explosive with the pass game off of the run. On defense, we're going to stop the run. We're going to be physical against the run. In the pass game, we're going to affect the quarterback physically and we're going to affect him mentally as well with disguise, with the way that we play coverage. And then on special teams, we're looking for a unit that is incredibly detailed, that plays with great effort and strength.”
From there, Ryan indicated Stefanski, a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, was a natural fit. “He wants smart, tough, highly competitive players and coaches that are open to being held accountable and holding each other accountable,” Ryan said. “He’s an excellent communicator. He's clear, he's concise, and he's direct. I think that style of communication lends to connection, which is so huge amongst players and coaches.”
Stefanski will have his work cut out for him. Outside of the Jets, no team has a longer playoff drought than the Atlanta Falcons, who last reached the postseason in the 2017 season. Since then, Atlanta has posted five seven-win seasons, two eight-win ones and a dreadful four-win year. It hasn’t been great.
And even when the Falcons win, they lose. Atlanta finished this season tied atop the NFC South with 8 wins, but due to early-season struggles and inexplicable losses, the Falcons had been eliminated from the playoff hunt weeks before. The new regime, then, will be tasked not just with rebuilding the team on the field, but rebuilding belief in the stands, rallying a fan base rooting for a team whose only consistent feature is inconsistency.
“I'm here because I believe in this group. I believe in this roster,” Stefanski said. “We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about what we're going to do. We're just going to keep our head down and work.”
Over the course of the 45-minute introductory press conference, Stefanski hit on several key topics, including a potential quarterback battle in Atlanta. Michael Penix Jr., who began the season as Atlanta’s starter, suffered a torn ACL in Week 11 and was lost for the season, replaced by expensive backup Kirk Cousins. Stefanski offered perspective without specifics on the future of both.
“What's most important right now for Michael is to get healthy. He knows that, and we'll get to football here shortly, but he's attacking his rehab,” Stefanski said. “He's had some really, really, really good moments here in the pros. I see a young player that will continue to develop and continue to get better.”
As for Cousins, whom Stefanski coached as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in Minnesota, the analysis remained high-level and general. “When it comes to Kirk,” Stefanski said, “obviously I have a previous relationship with Kirk, but I don't know if it's the time yet to talk about all positions.”
One roster spot that requires no nuance is running back. Bijan Robinson stands as one of the best players in the league, and Stefanski summed up his feelings on Robinson succinctly.
“He's good,” Stefanski said, to laughter. “He's a special person, I'd start there. … He’s team oriented, he's an intelligent player, and there's no shortage to what he can do with a football in his hands. And that’s our job as coaches, to find ways to get that ball in his hands.”
Stefanski also addressed the brief X controversy involving Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield, who tweeted earlier this month that he was “shipped off like a piece of garbage” from Cleveland under Stefanski.
“Baker’s somebody that I have a ton of respect for as a player and a person,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, Buccaneers, Falcons have a great rivalry. It's something that I'm excited about. But I would not get into the specifics of those type of things other than to say I have a ton of respect for Baker as a player, as a person.”
Adding to the pressure on Stefanski is the fact that three separate teams — the Patriots, Bears and Jaguars — swapped out their head coaches prior to last season and instantly leaped from low-single to double-digit wins and playoff berths. Patience for slow rebuilds, particularly when a team has finished outside the playoffs as many times as Atlanta has, is now nonexistent.
“The expectation is to always win. There's no doubt about that,” Ryan said. “But part of what we've talked about is, How do you get there? My expectation is that we come to work with the right mindset every day. We focus on the things that we need to do in order to get the results that we want. Very process-driven. I was as a player, and I will be in this new role as well.”
“It's very, very easy to sit up here and talk about it,” Stefanski said. “We will be about that work. We will put in the work, and it's going to be hard work. We'll put in the work to being a smart football team, to playing a smart brand of football. We will earn that toughness.”
The Falcons begin offseason workouts on April 7, but the expectations for Stefanski to right the ship have already begun.
