The Atlanta Falcons are in the midst of a playoff drought that\u2019s spanning nearly a decade. <\/p>\n
Following a house cleaning of the front office and coaching staff in Atlanta, the franchise hired former Falcons QB and franchise legend Matt Ryan as President of Football. <\/p>\n
His first task? Hire the team\u2019s next head coach. That task has been accomplished. And that hire someone used to having success with hard luck franchises. The Atlanta Falcons have named former Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski as its next man to lead the franchise. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to land a lead-by-example leader in Kevin Stefanski who brings a clear vision for his staff, our team and a closely aligned focus on building this team on fundamentals, toughness and active collaboration with every area of the football operation,\u201d Ryan said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Stefanski is a team-first leader who puts a premium on accountability for everyone and a player-driven culture. His experience in Cleveland and Minnesota has given him a great understanding of the importance of working in sync with scouting, personnel and the rest of the football staff to maximize talent across the roster and in doing everything possible to put our players in the best position to succeed. Kevin\u2019s style of leadership, combined with the staff and infrastructure in place here in Atlanta, gives us confidence in our shared vision for the team and we are excited to have him as the leader of our football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Vikings](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/B2KV4OVTX5AI3O5KETFARKBWIM.jpg\")
Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski stands on the sideline during the first half of the NFL game between Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Kirsty Wigglesworth)AP<\/p>\n
Stefanski is no stranger to the NFC, having been a former assistant in Minnesota for a majority of his career before taking his first head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns. Hired by the Browns in 2020, Stefanski helped lift the franchise into AFC North contenders, by making the playoffs twice in his six seasons and being named NFL\u2019s Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2023. <\/p>\n
Stefanski could not repeat the early successes he had following the 2023 season and went 8-26 in his final two seasons coaching the Browns before being let go at the end of this past season. <\/p>\n
The rebuild will continue for the Falcons as they\u2019ll have many roster moves to make, as they try to overhaul the roster and get back into the always competitive NFC South. <\/p>\n
The Falcons do not have a first-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons are in the midst of a playoff drought that\u2019s spanning nearly a decade. Following a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[90036,58555,7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-685885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-chicago-bears-2025","9":"tag-cleveland-browns-2025","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-vikings","13":"tag-minnesotavikings","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115914621572658058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}