ATLANTA — Kevin Stefanski sat on stage wearing a black suit and red tie — colors of his new team — in his introductory news conference. The incoming Atlanta Falcons head coach made it clear that he is exactly where he wants to be.
“Atlanta is where I wanted to be,” Stefanski said Tuesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “I wanted to be here. There was a pull to this job and a pull to this city, and it really started right at the top.”
Stefanski then referenced new Falcons president of football and fellow Philadelphia-area native Matt Ryan, who was sitting to his left, and owner Arthur Blank, who was off to the side watching and listening.
“Arthur and I share very similar values of how to treat people,” Stefanski said. “He will create an environment and an opportunity to win. And then Matt Ryan, I’ve known Matt a long time. I’ve known of Matt a very long time. I know what he’s made of. I know what he’s about. I know where he’s from literally, but I also know what is important to him and what’s important to Matt is winning.”
Falcons fans are just starting to get to know Stefanski, who brings a complicated résumé from the Cleveland Browns. Stefanski guided the Browns to their first playoff berth in 18 years back in 2020 and then took Cleveland to the postseason again in 2023 despite never getting high-level quarterback play. After both of those seasons, Stefanski was named the AP NFL Coach of the Year. But he also had an 8-26 record his final two years with the Browns and was fired after this past season. The man the Falcons let go, Raheem Morris, was coming off back-to-back 8-9 seasons.
“So with Kevin, we land a head coach who has accomplished a lot, a two-time NFL Coach of the Year,” Ryan said. “We also get someone who’s hungry, highly motivated, resilient, with a lot to prove.”
The biggest thing learned from Stefanski’s opening news conference is that offensive coordinator Tommy Rees will be calling plays, not Stefanski. Rees was Stefanski’s offensive coordinator with the Browns in 2025 and Stefanski relinquished playcalling to him in November.
Here are five other big takeaways from Tuesday’s festivities:
The Falcons’ new vision
Blank hired the firm Sportsology to audit the Falcons’ football operations during the 2025 season, and the most notable thing that came back was a lack of clarity in vision. That was a main impetus for firing Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot, as well as hiring Ryan, arguably the best player in franchise history. Ryan is at the helm to help establish and oversee that new vision. And he gave some new detail Tuesday into what that vision — that identity — will be.
“The main thing was we wanted a detailed, tough physical football team on offense,” Ryan said. “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.”
Stefanski, Ryan said, was the candidate who best exemplified and embraced that vision.
“We will be about that work,” Stefanski said. “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. I believe that physicality and playing this style of football is earned and we will earn that.”
Why Stefanski?
Other than being the man who shared Ryan’s vision for what the identity of the Falcons should be, Stefanski also came highly recommended. Ryan said it was the references from others around the league that really pushed Stefanski over the finish line.
“I would say more important than anything was the reference work that we did, and as impressive as Kevin is — and as much as I enjoyed the conversations that we had — the reference work, not only by myself but the entire research committee of going through and talking to former players, talking to former coaches, talking to different people around the league that knew Kevin from different stops along the way, it all started to line up and I really think that was the biggest thing,” Ryan said. “The feeling that we were getting was matching up with the reference work that we were doing.”
The firms ZRG Partners and Sportsology were both involved in the coaching search. Chad Chatlos, ZRG’s managing director of athletics administration and coaching, was part of the team that hired Curt Cignetti at Indiana, and he played a part in recommending Stefanski for the Falcons job.
Staff taking shape
Stefanski said he’s very comfortable with Rees calling plays, which he did for the latter half of last season in Cleveland. Rees, 33, is young, Stefanski said, but has experience, which includes being a quarterback at Notre Dame and Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama.
Former NFL head coach Bill Callahan has been brought in as offensive line coach, a role he was in for four seasons with Stefanski in Cleveland, including the two postseason appearances. Stefanski said he believes Callahan is “the best in the business.”
Of importance to the Falcons organization was the retention of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. Blank said he would recommend keeping Ulbrich to whoever the new coach ended up being. It didn’t take much arm-twisting for Stefanski to hang on to the guy who guided the Falcons to a franchise-record 57 sacks in 2025.
“There was a very easy conversation with [Ulbrich] and I about how we saw this game of football and how demanding we are of our players and then just watching tape of some of the things that he was able to do this season with some of our young players, it was really exciting,” Stefanski said. “So early on we got on the horn and it was obvious to me and I think it was obvious to him, we really hit it off. Cut from the same cloth, if you will, from a football perspective. But can’t tell you how excited I am to have Coach Brick with us.”
The Falcons boast a dynamic, young pass-rushing duo in James Pearce Jr. (10.5 sacks as a rookie) and Jalon Walker (5.5).
Lessons from Cleveland
Stefanski stated plainly that things were not always rosy with the Browns. He and the Falcons are hoping that the lessons he learned in Cleveland will inform him better in his new landing spot. Stefanski went 45-56 in six seasons there.
“There’s a quote I love where ‘smooth seas do not make skillful sailors,’ and I think it’s something that’s important as all of us understand, some of those tough moments are going to make us better,” Stefanski said. “I’m so excited about what we’re doing at the Atlanta Falcons in 2026 and what we’re going to be about, and I know this: You’re going to get the best version of me as we get going here. You’re also going to get somebody that’s going to grow every single day that I’m in this profession, somebody that I’m going to push myself.
“I have a staff around me that’s going to push me and, to our fans, I want them to know that we’re going to put our heads down and we’re going to work.”
Stefanski promised taking accountability, but deadpanned it was not his fault that Atlanta has faced below-freezing temperatures the past few days.
“I’m not taking the blame for the weather out there right now,” Stefanski joked. “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.”
What’s up with the GM search?
Still “in process,” Ryan said. He added that there will be some in-person interviews coming up in the “near future.” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Tuesday that two finalists — Chicago Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham and Houston Texans assistant general manager James Liipfert — will be in Atlanta later this week for second interviews. Stefanski has now also been part of the search, giving his input.
“I’m here to support Matt and everybody throughout this search,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, try to give my insight to Matt and everybody as they continue to talk to different candidates. I’m excited to partner with that candidate and, like Matt mentioned, we’ll have some more time to spend with those candidates and share a vision for how we see this football team, and I have no doubt with the people that we’ve spoken to already that we’re well on our way in that process.”
