With Stefanski out, Bevell in mix for O.C.
The Vikings were able to block the Giants from interviewing Minnesota QB coach Kevin Stefanski, 35, for the Giants’ offensive coordinator job, it seems, due to some unusual phrasing in the NFL’s Anti-Tampering Policy.
Everyone knows it would be a promotion for Stefanski to move from coaching just the quarterbacks on one team to being hired as another team’s offensive coordinator. However, the NFL’s Anti-Tampering Policy divides coaches into only two tiers: head coach and all assistant coaches.
Section 4(i)(4) of the policy, therefore, appears to categorize the move from QB coach to offensive coordinator as a “lateral move,” because any non-head coaching position is simply grouped together by the league as an “assistant” job. And therefore, the employer club can block any request. Here’s the exact wording:
“If an inquiring club wishes to discuss an assistant coaching position with an assistant coach who is under contract to another club at any time prior to the opening of the employer club’s training camp, it will be considered a lateral move, and the employer club is under no obligation to grant the assistant coach permission to discuss the position with the interested club. At the discretion of the employer club, however, such permission may be voluntarily granted.”
Now head coach Pat Shurmur, who will call his own plays running his own offense with the Giants, no doubt has other candidates in mind. But there was clear chemistry between Shurmur and Stefanski last year in Minnesota.
Shurmur said on Jan. 18 at the Vikings’ Winter Park facility, when the Daily News traveled north to speak with the Giants’ next head coach, that Stefanski has been “very patient with his career.”
That was a nod to Stefanski’s being the Vikings’ longest-tenured coach, recently completing his 12th season, a strength in which he went from assistant to head coach, to assistant QBs coach, to tight ends coach, to running backs coach, to quarterbacks coach in 2017 with Shumur as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator.
It was also possibly Shurmur’s way of saying Stefanski had more than put in his time and was ready for the next move up. The Vikings clearly weren’t ready to lose Stefanski — the son of Ed Stefanski, executive VP of player personnel for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. But Shurmur even said Stefanski had certain traits that were “good for” Shurmur as a coordinator.
“Kevin’s an outstanding coach,” Shurmur said that day after practice. “He’s been very patient with his career. I think he’s always aspired to coach the quarterback, did an excellent job this year. I think what’s really good about Kevin, he’s a communicator — so he communicates with me, we communicate to the quarterbacks and try to stay on the same page with them and Coach (Mike) Zimmer and what we’re all thinking, and he’s very organized. My goodness. I still use a pencil once in a while. He’s really into staying organized, which is good for me. Although I’m organized, not to that level. Staffs need that, and he’s really good at that.”
Where do the Giants go from here? Well, Eagles running backs coach Duce Staley is a hot name at the moment, and he and Shurmur overlapped when Staley was a Philly running back and Shurmur was coaching tight ends, offensive line and eventually quarterbacks for Andy Reid.
But I’d keep a closer eye on Darrell Bevell, 48, the recentlyfired Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator. While Bevell and Shurmur haven’t coached together in the NFL, they both have coached under renowned offensive mind Brad Childress, 61, who recently retired from Reid’s Chiefs staff after a 19-year coaching run.
Childress was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator for the first four years of Shurmur’s seven-year run coaching the Eagles’ quarterbacks from 2002-05. And Bevell was Childress’ offensive coordinator during Childress’ four-plus seasons as head coach in Minnesota (2006-10).
Bevell of course is infamous for throwing the ball on the goal line to lose Super Bowl XLIX, but he also guided the Seahawks’ offense to a top-10 ranking in four of his seven seasons in Seattle with the help of dynamic QB Russell Wilson and RB Marshawn Lynch. And while the Seahawks’ defense has been the team’s backbone, Bevell was the OC for the Seahawks’ XVLIII championship team that pounded Peyton Manning’s Broncos, 43-8, at MetLife Stadium.
Shurmur, prior to his two-year stint in Minnesota, was Chip Kelly’s offensive coordinator for three years in Philly, when Kelly had three different QB coaches from 2013-15. But all three of those coaches are employed elsewhere for the coming season: Bill Lazor as the Bengals’ OC, Bill Musgrave as the Broncos’ OC, and Ryan Day as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, a promotion he received to protect him from poaching by interested college and pro teams. s the Giants’ head coach, Shurmur will be the offensive and quarterback authority. Still, he stresses often how much he values other voices and communication and clarity for his quarterbacks. So whomever he hires needs to be someone who keeps the quarterbacks on the same page as the coach and also helps the QBs grow, a significant element given the potential drafting of a rookie QB at No. 2 and the presence already of young Davis Webb.
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