O’Shea, Pagac added to team’s staff

There will be no shortage of opinions in how to form the offensive game plan under new Browns coach Kevin Stefanski.

There will be no shortage of opinions in how to form the offensive game plan under new Browns coach Kevin Stefanski.

The Browns on Feb. 4 hired Chad O’Shea as their pass-game coordinator/wide receivers coach. Stump Mitchell, a holdover from Freddie Kitchen’s coaching staff, is the run-game coordinator. Alex Van Pelt was hired last week as offensive coordinator.

Stefanski was the Vikings’ offensive coordinator for the last three regular season games of 2018 and all of 2019. He will likely call plays, at least in 2020. Val Pelt was offensive coordinator for the Bills in 2009, but hasn’t called plays since.

O’Shea was offensive coordinator for the Dolphins last season. He and Stefanski were assistants on the Vikings’ coaching staff from 2006-08. Stefanski stayed with the Vikings through 2019. O’Shea left and coached the Patriots’ wide receivers from 2009-18.

“I like to be surrounded by smart people and good coaches.” Stefanski said in a statement. “Chad just spent a year calling it, so he understands the things that go along with play-calling and learned a ton of lessons he can help me with.

“Spending all that time in the New England program, having a ton of success, I think it’s made him a better coach and I’m looking forward to drawing on some of those experiences with him to try and make our staff as complete as it can be.”

O’Shea was an assistant at the University of Houston and Southern Mississippi from 1996-2002 before breaking into the NFL as a volunteer special teams coach with the Chiefs under Dick Vermeil in 2003. Vermeil put him on the payroll, and for the next two years O’Shea was the Chiefs’ linebackers coach/assistant special teams coach.

O’Shea said learning under Vermeil in Kansas City and Bill Belichick in New England enriched his coaching knowledge.

“There are definitely a lot of similarities in their approach toward work,” O’Shea said in a statement. “I think that’s what’s unique about being a coach is that

you’re going to have players that have different personalities. You’re going to have coaches that you work with on the staff that are going to have different personalities but at the end of the day there are some core values that I think a lot of the great coaches and players share that I’ve been around.

“One of the greatest traits is work ethic and certainly both of those have been a great example to me in this profession of how I need to go about my business and work.”

In other news, the Browns are hiring Fred Pagac as linebackers coach, according to Alex Marvez of SiriusXM Radio.

As with several assistants

on Stefanski’s staff in Cleveland, Pagac and Stefanski worked together in Minnesota. Pagac was the Vikings’ linebackers coach from 2006-10. He was the Vikings’ defensive coordinator for part of 2010 after Leslie Frazier was promoted to interim head coach and all of 2011 and then linebackers coach again for 2012-13. He coached linebackers for the Bills (2014) and Broncos (2015-17) after leaving the Vikings.

Pagac, 67, a linebacker at Ohio State, was on the Buckeyes’ coaching staff from 1978-2000. He coached the linebackers from 1982-95 and was the Ohio State defensive coordinator from 1996-99.