Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (1.5.25)
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, tough day. The finality of the season coming to an end is always hard. There’s frustration from myself, I’m sure our fans. I share in that frustration. Extremely disappointed in where this season went and that we’re not playing football anymore. That’s tough. So, tough day all around, but we’re going to get to fixing this and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get back to work. So, we’re going to meet with the players today, meet with the coaches, and obviously we’ll have time to look at all this. But, extremely frustrated, extremely disappointed, extremely appreciative. Appreciative of our players, [they] gave me and gave us everything they had. Fought like crazy. The results were not what we wanted. That’s obvious. But I’m certainly grateful to them for how hard they played, kept swinging. I know you guys saw the news on Ken Dorsey and Andy Dickerson. I think the world of those two guys as people, as coaches, but I’m going to go in a different direction and I’m appreciative of their hard work as well. But with that, I’ll take any questions.”
On Andy, can you just reflect on the challenges of this season? You guys tried maybe some different things, etcetera.
“Yeah, I think there’s a lot that we need to look into, Tom (Withers), and get fixed. This is never going to be about one person, let me make that clear. Or in this case, about one coach or another coach. This is something that we all own. We all share in that but have to look at all of it.”
What went into the decision to move on from those two?
“Yeah, just bottom line, I want to go in a different direction. We need to improve, as everybody knows, on the offensive side of the ball, and that’s what we plan to do.”
Do you feel like you guys got away from maybe what you did best and what this team was built best to do this season?
“We certainly didn’t play well enough, Dan (Labbe). So, I think it’s something that we need to look at and we need to look at doing those things as a team, certainly doing those things as an offense that give you a chance to win.”
Players are talking, Kevin, that the philosophy just wasn’t working. So, could you sense that? And as you as head coach, could you have said, “Wait, we have to go back to what we were doing,” or is that just not that simple?
“I think bottom line, the results were not there, Jeff (Schudel), and we all share in that. And there’s things that we have to improve, there’s things that we have to fix, and that’s what we’ll do.”
Did you or do you have regrets about giving up play calling?
“Yeah, listen, we are where we are. There are decisions that you make every week, every season, seemingly every quarter of a game, and then you learn from those decisions. What I’m always trying to do, as you guys know, is just trying to do what’s best for the team.”
Do you feel like you have to decide if you guys are more of a play action, bootleg type of team or if you want to be the spread RPO team that Deshaun (Watson) was going to be well suited for, or can you find a marriage between the two, or how do you approach that?
“Yeah, I think it goes back to we need to play sound offensive football, Mary Kay (Cabot). And that really is in every scheme. Doesn’t matter whether you’re dropping back to pass, handing it off, we have to be more sound than we were. And obviously it also goes into taking care of the football, which we have not done a good enough job of. I know you guys are sick of me talking about it, but it’s the number one thing when you’re talking about winning and losing and we have to do a better job there.”
When you do finally hire an offensive coordinator, do you intend to kind of take back those play calling duties?
“Yeah, I’m not even there, Daniel (Oyefusi), on that type of decision. I’ll want to go through the process of talking to coordinator candidates first.”
Are there other potential changes that you are looking at or is that something that could happen whenever you do make a decision and hire a new OC?
“Yeah, I don’t anticipate any major changes.”
When do you think you’ll launch your coordinator search?
“Right away.”
Are there candidates in the building that you’ll talk to today?
“There are guys that I’ll talk to in the building, yes.”
Who will lead that search process in terms of finding candidates and then ultimately vetting and interviewing them?
“Sure, that’ll be all of us. It’s kind of all hands-on deck, Daniel (Oyefusi); myself, AB (Andrew Berry), a bunch of people.”
How challenging is that when you don’t really know who the starting quarterback is going to be?
“Yeah, I think for us, Mary Kay (Cabot), it goes back to running a sound system that we feel confident can set our team up for success, really. And that goes for every position.”
Did you feel it slipping away that this philosophy wasn’t working?
“I think if you look back, Jeff (Schudel), we certainly we didn’t win enough. We didn’t play well enough as a team to win. So, in this instance, we have to find ways to play better on offense to give ourselves a chance to win as a team.”
Going 3-14, it feels a long way away from contention. Do you think this team can get back to where it wants to be in the playoffs next season?
“I do, I do. I know the core guys we have on this team; I know the coaches we have on this team. Obviously, there’s change every season. We all understand that. That’s the NFL. But I feel very confident in the group we have.”
A few of the guys specifically talked about hoping that you go back to some version of that wide zone run scheme that was so effective your first few years here. I mean, do you envision that as a possibility right now?
“Yeah. Not to get too far into specifics, Ashley (Bastock), other than to say we will get back to a sound system that gives our team a chance. And again, I want to make it clear this is not about one person or one particular part of the scheme. This is about all of us owning it and fixing it.”
Joel Bitonio and Jack Conklin said that the team from a personnel standpoint is best suited for that outside zone, play action scheme that we were so used to you running prior to this year. Do you agree with that, that the personnel in this team is built for that?
“I would say that we have scheme – the two guys you just mentioned, I think they’re good at a bunch of different things. Obviously, that’s our job to look at what we can lean into and be good at. But I feel really confident in our group up front to be able to execute a bunch of different schemes.”
You talk about this group and feeling good about them and that it’s hard to square that with the results and believing that keeping things mostly status quo is going to result in better results. So just from your standpoint, why is your belief so strong in that?
“Yeah, I think it goes back to Daryl (Ruiter), there’s nobody more disappointed with how this season went than me, I promise you. And there’s nobody more committed to fixing it than me. I know the people we have; I know that there will be changes like there are every single season. I get that part. But I trust in the group, and I trust that we will get it done.”
We know that Deshaun is going to come back with an opportunity to compete for the starting job as long as he’s healthy. What do you think he might have left in the tank and how much would you look forward to trying to work with him again?
“I think the biggest thing, like you mentioned, Mary Kay (Cabot), is he’s got to get healthy. That’s the most important thing going for him right now and he’s working hard.”
Along those lines, I know after the immediate aftermath of this injury, you said that you knew what you had in Deshaun. Do you think that you have a starting caliber quarterback that you can win with in Deshaun?
“Yeah, again, I think the number one thing for Deshaun, and I’ve talked to him about this, is he has to get healthy. He’s working hard towards that goal. Obviously, then we need to be more consistent and that’s at the quarterback position, that’s at every position certainly on the team, but speaking specifically to the offense, we need more consistent play. But for Deshaun, the number one thing that he needs to do is get healthy.”
Was he healthy coming into the season here? You’ve mentioned health a couple of times here and considering the challenges the offense had in those first seven games prior to his injury, what was behind that?
“I would say yes, he was healthy. Certainly, was coming off a major surgery, but was healthy enough. But he knows he wants to play more consistent. But again, the number one thing is just getting him healthy.”
Does the room have to be aligned in terms of your quarterback so that you might not be doing the Deshaun type of guy and also like a, whatever, Joe Flacco, let’s say?
“I don’t think of it in those terms necessarily, Mary Kay (Cabot). I think we need to — whatever we look at as an organization and guys that are available and who we bring back at every position because I would love to bring everybody back. It’s not possible, unfortunately. They have these roster rules that get in the way. But we’ll see how it all shakes out.”
Did you meet with Myles (Garrett)?
“Not yet. I’ve met with a few guys, haven’t met with everybody just yet.”
He obviously talked about wanting to know what the plan is to contend next year. So, what’s the pitch to him to get him happy to be coming back next year?
“Yeah, I would leave all those things private between Myles and myself.”
Would you expect him back?
“Yes.”
When you hear guys wanting to know the plan, is that something that you are open to is providing transparency about where you look…?
“As much as you can, Cam (Justice). I think you always want to bring your guys, especially your leaders, guys that have been here, you want to bring them into what the plans are moving forward.”
This will be your third offensive coordinator in three years. Is there a specific quality or qualities that this new offensive coordinator must have that you haven’t had before?
“No, I wouldn’t say there’d be anything specific one quality. We are looking for somebody to come in and help us share in a vision where we can go play sound, explosive offensive football. I feel confident that we’ll be able to do that.”
With you guys having a top three pick, maybe even the number one overall pick, how involved will you get in scouting the college quarterbacks? Are you going to be on your way to the Senior Bowl and really dig into the college guys?
“We’ll work through all of that, Mary Kay (Cabot). I know Andrew’s way ahead of me when it comes to that, but I’ll get my scout hat on here pretty quickly.”
Along those lines, Kevin, ownership has talked for years about the alignment that you and AB (Andrew Berry) have, the desire for that and how it has been a big plus of this regime. How much responsibility do you feel to make sure that that stays in a good place coming off a rough season? Because obviously throughout pro sports when expectations aren’t met, that’s when things can go sideways.
“So my commitment to alignment?”
How much responsibility do you feel in making sure that you and Andrew stay aligned throughout an offseason, trying to bounce back?
“We feel very responsible, and we are tied at the hip and we will do everything in our power together. Andrew works really, really hard at this. I’m sure you guys will talk to Andrew, I’ll let him speak for himself. But we’re frustrated and we will get it fixed.”
How important is it to you to have an offensive coordinator that maybe you’ve worked with before or that you feel super comfortable with or that you know that you completely can be on the same page?
“I think it’s a good question, Mary Kay (Cabot). I think it remains to be seen; we need to see what this looks like and looking forward to talking to some people. I’m sure we’ll talk to people that I don’t have a prior relationship to, and I’ve hired plenty of guys over the years that you don’t have a relationship with, and it works really well, so that’s not a prerequisite.”
Do you have an update on the severity of Mike Hall’s injury at this point?
“Not yet. I know he got out of that MRI, but I don’t have an update just yet.”
Were you able to provide any more information on JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah)?
“Nothing more to add other than to say he’s getting all the information he can get and we’ll update you guys when appropriate.”
Do you think he’ll play next year, though?
“I’m hopeful.”
I know with all the talk about the offense changes, do you feel like there has to be a stronger commitment to the run game, especially in the start of the season next year?
“We have to play better on offense in a bunch of different areas. I don’t think it’s as simple as just one saying running effectively, that is a component of it. But we need to do a better job of setting our team up for success and I think too often this season our defense had to take the field in some really, really tough spots after a turnover. If you just look at the number of drives that our defense faced this year, it’s not a formula for winning.”
Would you say that was a philosophical change from 2023 to 2024, that you were going to come out throwing much more than you did the previous year?
“I wouldn’t say that was a core tenet of what we were planning on doing. Obviously, we got behind in too many games, but we definitely need to run the ball more effectively.”
To achieve the success that you’re aiming to achieve in this league, you need a lead quarterback play, there’s no question about it. So how much of the challenges that you’ve had at that position are system based? How much of them are player based? Just your perspective on getting to a point where this franchise has elite quarterback play.
“We need to play, certainly, more consistent at the quarterback position, and I think that goes for the entire offense as well. Obviously, you look around the league and I understand that there’s guys playing at a very high level. We feel really confident that we can get a group to play really consistent offensive football.”
Do you expect the offensive coordinator to also serve as sort of the quarterback’s coach, or is that something that you could also hire?
“Yeah, I think it’s certainly a possibility of hiring a quarterback coach as well, but I need to work through all of that.”
The defense had been put in some tough field positions throughout the season. So how do you evaluate how they did as a unit over the course of the season, especially just off of the success they had last year?
“I thought they battled like crazy. Even yesterday, I thought was a great example of turnover on downs, put them in plus territory, a kickoff return, put them in plus territory. I think a punt put them right around midfield and those guys kept taking the field and kept swinging. It wasn’t perfect. Obviously, as you know, we wore down towards the end there of that football game, which was disappointing. But I can’t fault the effort. There are things I know we can do better. I know Coach (Jim) Schwartz and defensive staff are already working towards things we can do better. But so much of this goes into playing complimentary football. And when you don’t do that, you just make it really hard.”
Is it safe to say, or is it too simplistic to say that you… I mean, we sort of associate you, or at least I do, associate you more with the West Coast, Gary Kubiak type of offense. But is that inaccurate to kind of portray it like that? I mean, are you totally cool with the call of the spread?
“Yeah, certainly. You can call it whatever you want Mary Kay (Cabot). I think for me, biggest thing is playing sound, being explosive when we can be explosive, being efficient. How exactly you deploy that, I think that varies even among the teams. Like, for instance, you’re talking about in some of those trees; those branches of those trees can vary pretty significantly. So, what exactly you call it or what it exactly looks like is not as important to me as how efficient, sound, explosive it is.”
It was obvious the three young receivers kind of blossomed when the quarterback changed after the injury. Is there any other explanation other than being able to do the play-action pass?
“I would just tell you in terms of our receivers, I thought those guys competed well all season long. Did their job. Obviously, Jerry (Jeudy) had a big year for us, I think he can certainly play even better, and he believes that as well. So, we’ll just focus on getting those guys as improvement plans and making sure that they get back here healthy and are ready to roll.”
How involved will you be in kind of restructuring that quarterback room? Will it be more than in years past?
“I think AB does a great job of bringing the coaches in on all personnel decisions. So, I’ll be right there with him every step of the way.”
Obviously, when the change happened last offseason, you guys let Bill (Callahan) go, you talked about how great he is, but is there any way to quantify what his absence this season, how that may be impacting the play and sort of like that group sort of taking a step back?
“Respectfully, I don’t think it’s fair to put that on that particular decision. As you guys know, we’ve talked about Bill, love Bill, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that.”
Feels like it’ll be the first time with you guys here that you go into an offseason with this much uncertainty at the top of the quarterback depth chart, how do you approach that? Does that feel like a daunting thing, trying to kind of rework that room?
“There’s uncertainty in pro sports. There’s uncertainty in the NFL. We really trust in the guys we have. I trust in what we’re going to do in terms of putting this thing back together. But the fact that there’s going to be uncertainty at any position, I think is just part of this league.”
Do you anticipate Mike Vrabel taking any of your assistants with him?
“He’d have to ask first.”
When you look back on how this season went and how the locker room in other situations, in other teams, might have gone awry, that they stayed kind of banded together and kept that morale through it, what does that say about this unit?
“I mean, listen, we’re results based. Nobody feels good about where we are. But I’m proud of those guys for giving me everything that they had. I’m proud of the work that they put into it. They kept swinging. And I think that speaks to the leadership on this football team. I’d point out Rod (Rodney) McLeod Jr., Joel Bitonio as two guys that made sure that their teammates gave it everything that they had. And both of those guys addressed the team Friday night before the game, and I can’t say enough about their leadership and what it’s meant to this football team.”
How about your short list of offensive coordinator candidates so far?
“It’s early, so need to work through all that. I think we’ll talk to a bunch of different guys and get some different perspectives, but there’s a lot of work to be done there.”
You and the coaches, you can’t go out there and play the game for the players. So, there’s obviously got to be some responsibility from the locker room for what has happened this season. Clearly effort not an issue, but just from a leadership standpoint, what do you think happened with this group of talented players where it just didn’t really come together in all three phases?
“To the first part of the question, Daryl (Ruiter), we all own this. That’s how this game works. That’s how sports work. You all own the results. So, this is a player, coaches, staff. That record goes on all of us, and it goes on me and you don’t hide from that. What do we take away from this? We take a lot away from every season and we have to learn from it. There’re things that we know we can do better. There’re things that we know we want to fix. But I can promise you all of us are committed to fixing it together.”
In Deshaun’s (Watson) first seven games, and we’ve talked about this some before, but do you feel like there were a lot of other problems besides just what was going on with Deshaun?
“I think it goes without saying, Mary Kay (Cabot), that it’s never about one person. Ever. And I think certainly we need to look at everybody and their role and how we can be better. But I can’t say that it’s ever going to be about one person.”
How do you feel about the left tackle spot and what did you see out of Dawand (Jones) before he got hurt and just what are your thoughts on Jed’s (Wills) possible future?
“I think we’ll see on all those guys. Specifically, to Dawand, when he got hurt, I thought he was starting to settle in at that position. So, he needs to get healthy. That’s the most important thing for him right now. And then we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Is he concerning with Dawand? I mean that two seasons in a row ending with an injury.
“Certainly, want him to be healthy and certainly that’s a main point of emphasis for him. Like you mentioned, sometimes playing at that position you can get unlucky and a guy can roll up on the back of you on your legs, but he’s going to focus on getting healthy, getting stronger and really see where it goes from there.”
Have you lined up interviews yet? Do you have somebody coming in?
“No, nope. There’s a bunch of games on today, so not just yet.”
You talk so much about your messaging year to year and trying to keep that fresh, but in a year where you go 3-14, you’ve never obviously experienced this before. Like how difficult was that for you and how did you try to do your best to keep guys motivated? I mean, it seemed like it obviously worked, but…
“Listen, that’s a frustrating outcome. It’s disappointing. It’s all of those things. But we have that resolve where we will get it fixed. We’re not going to hide from it, not going to wish it away. You won’t hear that from me, from our players, from our coaches. We will own this, and we will make sure that we fix this.”
Kevin, how difficult is it just as a person when you go home with your family to leave this stuff here?
“Yeah, I leave it here. I leave you here, Jeff (Schudel), I don’t take any of you guys with me. [laughter] But listen, there’s your job and then there’s your family. And I don’t bring my job home to my kids.”
Would a coordinator and or play calling experience be high on your list of criteria for your new guy?
“I’m open minded, Mary Kay (Cabot), to a bunch of… I know there’s not one way to do that, I think there’s going to be good candidates with and without that.”
Closing Statement:
“Hey, appreciate you. Appreciate you guys being professional all season long. And I’ll stay out of your hair for a little bit.”