Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\nRight out the gate, Stefanski showed a little bit of his personality.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ll sit up here and I will take the blame when it\u2019s appropriate. I\u2019m not taking the blame for the weather out there right now. I had nothing to do with that. I did not bring that with me. So I want to clear that up on the front end of this,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut seriously, the fans in this town, so passionate. It\u2019s real. I felt it. I\u2019ve met them out there. I cannot wait to be in this building and feel in this place shaking,” he added.<\/p>\n
Stefanski said all the things you would want a head coach to say off the bat: He wants to win. He wants to be physical. He can\u2019t wait to get to work.<\/p>\n
In reality, he\u2019s joining a team that hasn\u2019t made the playoffs since the 2017 season. They\u2019ve had a top-10 first round pick in four of their last five drafts.<\/p>\n
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Mastrangelo asked Stefanski why he believes he\u2019s the right head coach to get Atlanta out of its playoff drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here because I believe in this group. I believe in this roster. I believed, like I mentioned in what Arthur and Matt have put together already. I promise you this: We will work. We\u2019re not gonna spend a lot of time talking about what we\u2019re gonna do. We just can keep our head down and work,\u201d Stefanski said.<\/p>\n
Stefanski said he wouldn\u2019t change anything from his past, but he did learn a lot and is ready to build something special with the Falcons.<\/p>\n
He said he has traded text messages with running back Bijan Robinson and caught up with quarterback Michael Penix Jr. as he rehabs his knee at the Falcons facilities in Flowery Branch.<\/p>\n
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Stefanski said his goal is to connect with every player on the roster and is finalizing his staff. He confirmed that his offensive coordinator, Tommy Rees, will handle the play calling.<\/p>\n
As for the Falcons general manager search, new president of football Matt Ryan says they will have in-person interviews this week.<\/p>\n
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[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons officially introduced new head coach Kevin Stefanski on Tuesday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Channel 2\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,4127,224,7,6496,8591,6337,23759,6,2661],"class_list":["post-711302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-bijan-robinson","tag-falcons","tag-football","tag-head-coach","tag-kevin-stefanski","tag-mercedes-benz-stadium","tag-news-conference","tag-nfl","tag-the-falcons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115972402250136714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711302","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=711302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}