{"id":710918,"date":"2026-01-28T07:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/710918\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T07:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:19:30","slug":"falcons-kevin-stefanski-praises-michael-penix-jr-has-ton-of-respect-for-new-rival-baker-mayfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/710918\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons’ Kevin Stefanski praises Michael Penix Jr., has ‘ton of respect’ for new rival Baker Mayfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran Kirk Cousins<\/a> replaced Penix and led the Falcons to four straight wins to close out the season.<\/p>\n

Cousins was signed<\/a> to a four-year, $180 million deal shortly before the Falcons selected Penix with the eighth pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Penix replaced Cousins as the starter late in that season.<\/p>\n

Stefanski and Cousins worked together with the Vikings. Stefanski was Minnesota’s quarterbacks coach in 2018 and its offensive coordinator the following season, and the Vikings’ productive offense with Cousins under center helped Stefanski land the Browns’ head coaching job in 2020.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging his relationship with Cousins, Stefanski declined to address the veteran’s future. Cousins’ contract was restructured early this month, a move that suggests the Falcons could move on from him.<\/p>\n

By joining the NFC South, Stefanski has a new rival in Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield<\/a>, whom he coached for two seasons in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Mayfield made clear in a social media post that he’s newly motivated to beat the Falcons.<\/p>\n

“Still waiting on a text\/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage,” Mayfield wrote<\/a>. “Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach.”<\/p>\n

Asked about Mayfield’s comment, Stefanski had an answer ready.<\/p>\n

“Baker’s somebody that I have a ton of respect for as a player and a person,” he said. “I love rivalries in sports, and 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 types of things other than to say I have a ton of respect for Baker as a player, as a person. That’s a great team with a great player.”<\/p>\n

The Falcons have yet to hire a general manager to work alongside Ryan and Stefanski.<\/p>\n

“We’ve completed a number of interviews up until this point,” Ryan said. “We’re excited about the progress, and we’ve got some in-person interviews coming up in the near future.”<\/p>\n

The Falcons have interviewed a handful of candidates<\/a>. Two of them — Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham and 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams — also interviewed for the president of football position that went to Ryan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran Kirk Cousins replaced Penix and led the Falcons to four straight wins to close out the season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[2910,223,254,2554,224,7,88,6,609],"class_list":{"0":"post-710918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-associated-press","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-no-minute"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115971514006063327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710918","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=710918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}