Petzing hired from Vikings; will coach tight ends

Keven Stefanski spent 14 years as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Vikings before being hired last month as head coach of the Browns. So it is no surprise he is turning to his Vikings roots to form his new coaching staff.

The Browns on Feb. 3 announced Drew Petzing as their new tight ends coach. Petzing, a football operations intern with the Browns seven years ago, spent the last six seasons alongside Stefanski in Minnesota in various roles. Petzing was the Vikings’ assistant quarterbacks coach in 2017 and 2018. He was their wide receivers coach last year.

“I think he’s one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around,” Stefanski said in a statement. “I say that because he coached defense in college, he’s moved to the offensive side of the ball, been in the running backs room, the wide receivers room, the quarterbacks room.

“I think that type of breadth of experience is really important as you’re developing as a young coach. I think anybody who has been around him sees somebody that has a great knowledge of the game.”

Stefanski has already announced he is retaining Mike Priefer as Browns special teams coordinator. Priefer coached the Vikings special teams from 2011-18.

Soon the Browns are expected to officially announce Joe Woods is their new defensive coordinator. Woods would have been on the job sooner, but he was busy until Super Bowl LIV ended Feb. 2 because he was the 49ers’ defensive backs coach.

Woods coached the Vikings defensive backs from 2006-13. Stefanski began his NFL coaching career in 2006 as assistant to head coach Brad Childress.

The Browns’ offseason program begins April 1. Petzing figures his familiarity with Stefanski is a good way to begin the next phase of his coaching career.

“(Stefanski) had been in a lot of those similar roles,” Petzing said in a statement. “He was great in terms of taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes, showing me what was good, what was bad but also giving me the freedom to do things my way.

“He wasn’t overly demanding in terms of ‘You’ve got to do it the way that I did it.’ It was, ‘Hey, here’s what needs to get done. I trust you to do your job and take it the way you see fit,’ which was kind of unique I think.”

One of Petzing’s pet projects will be getting more production from the Browns’ tight ends. Demetrius Harris led the Browns tight ends with 15 catches in 2019. Ricky Seals-Jones had 14. David Njoku, who missed 10 games with a wrist injury and subsequent surgery, caught five passes.

Petzing grew up in Massachusetts and attended Middllebury College in Vermont, where he played defensive back until injuries ended his career as a football player. He turned to coaching at Middlebury as a volunteer student assistant in 2007-08 and then was a volunteer assistant at Harvard in 2009.

Petzing was a graduate assistant at Boston College in 2010-11 and the outside linebackers coach at Yale in 2012 before his first job with the Browns in 2013.