Dallas, TX
Dallas Cowboys scouting report: Breaking down the Browns offensive scheme
Just six months ago, Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was awarded the NFL’s Coach of the Year trophy after leading his team to the playoffs despite starting five different quarterbacks throughout the season. It was Stefanski’s second time winning the award, putting him in a rare category of coaches.
Now, Stefanski will follow up that magical season by hosting the Cowboys in Week 1. This marks a full circle moment for Stefanski, as the head coach and offensive play-caller will be going up against the man who played a pivotal role in his rise to coaching stardom: new Dallas defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.
Until Stefanski took the Browns head coaching job, the Minnesota Vikings were the only NFL team he had ever worked for. A Philadelphia native, Stefanski played defensive back at Penn, twice being selected to the All-Ivy League team. Upon his graduation, Stefanski spent a year as the assistant director of football operations for his alma mater. Then, at just 24 years old, he joined the Vikings as the assistant to then head coach Brad Childress. Stefanski was later promoted to assistant quarterbacks coach and retained in that role by interim head coach Leslie Frazier, who was named the full time head coach soon after.
When Frazier was ultimately fired, though, Zimmer was brought in to lead the franchise next. Zimmer made sweeping changes to the Vikings, but he opted to retain Stefanski and, in fact, promote him to tight ends coach. Two years later, Stefanski moved to the running backs room. A year later, he was the quarterbacks coach. And in 2018, when Zimmer fired offensive coordinator John DeFillippo halfway through the season, he turned to Stefanski as his interim coordinator.
The offense stabilized under Stefanski’s watch and, more importantly, Stefanski operated the run-first approach that Zimmer wanted. So Zimmer named Stefanski the full time offensive coordinator moving forward, bringing in coaching veteran Gary Kubiak as an offensive advisor to mentor Stefanski. A year later, Stefanski left for the top job in Cleveland, where he has a 37-30 record with two postseason appearances.
Stefanski’s story cannot be told without highlighting his history with Zimmer, but it also informs his own schematic preferences. Stefanski has worked under a wide list of offensive minds: Childress was an offshoot of Andy Reid’s West Coast spread offense, as was Bill Musgrave under Frazier; Norv Turner brought his signature Air Coryell offense that helped win two Super Bowls for the Cowboys back in the 90’s; Pat Shurmur offered a more traditional version of the West Coast; and Kubiak led a masterclass in the offense he and Mike Shanahan popularized in the 80’s in Denver, which has since evolved into what Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay are doing that’s taken the league by storm yet again.
It is this final schematic preference that is most prevalent in the Browns’ attack, but to call Stefanski a Shanahan devotee is a little too simplistic. From the top down, things look the same. Stefanski’s offense features plenty of wide zone run plays and lots of play-action with deep crossing routes. But Stefanski has a much more diverse run scheme, which he has pieced together over time from all the different coaches he’s learned under.
You’ll see just about every type of run concept in Cleveland, all of which has been fine-tuned to operate efficiently behind one of the league’s top offensive lines. Nick Chubb has long been the face of Stefanski’s electric rushing attack, but last year tested their ability to still produce without him when Chubb tore his ACL and MCL. The results were a mixed bag: the Browns finished fourth in rushing attempts and were just outside the top 10 in rushing yards for the year, but the efficiency fell quite a bit. Cleveland ranked 25th in yards per carry, 23rd in run DVOA, and 28th in EPA/rush.
Chubb won’t be back for this game – he’s set to miss at least the first four games of the year while on the PUP list – but they’ve bolstered their running back room in preparation for Chubb’s absence. They return Jerome Ford, who ran for 813 yards last year, and also added bruising runner D’Onta Foreman, who tallied 425 rushing yards last year as part of a deep running back rotation in Chicago.
The hope for Cleveland is that the run game gets back to its normal self – top 10 in DVOA in Stefanski’s first three years as head coach – because quarterback Deshaun Watson has struggled mightily in his time as a Brown. Without even discussing the off-field factors for Watson – who has played just 12 games in two years between suspensions and injuries – the quarterback’s play has been severely lacking.
Still, though, Stefanski’s offense is designed to put minimal pressure on the quarterback. Like many other schemes from the Shanahan tree – an offense that Zimmer himself has done well against historically – this scheme aims to give the quarterback layups in the passing game. Having a route running aficionado like Amari Cooper, who will face his former team for the first time since being traded away, also helps.
Now, Stefanski will get a chance to show what he can do against his former boss. He’s faced Zimmer once before: the Browns played the Vikings in 2021, Zimmer’s last season as head coach, and Cleveland won 17-14. A win for Stefanski’s team, but not a banner day for his offense against Zimmer’s defense. The head coach expects a similarly tough challenge for Round 2:
“Preseason obviously is not a great indication for any team in terms of the scheme. Coach Zim, obviously I know really well, is an outstanding football coach so we know that we’ll have our work cut out for us. Personnel wise… they have a bunch of really, really good players from the d-line back through the secondary.”
The Browns should present a similar challenge for Zimmer, too, as the new coordinator aims to beef up a unit that struggled far too often against the run last year. There’s few teams who pose a taller task in that respect, but perhaps Zimmer will be able to pull one over on his former protégé.
The search for the next general manager or president of basketball operations of the Dallas Mavericks has begun. They terminated Nico Harrison in November, which was about nine months too late, and gave any available candidates clear notice that they were open for business.
The plan was always to wait until after the season to start the search. While names popped up as the season reached an end, they didn’t begin turning over the staff until the Monday after the season ended. However, Dallas Mavericks fans are not going to like how the team is going about the search.
Patrick Dumont Leading Search for General Manager
NBA insider Jake Fischer reported that the Mavericks are not hiring a search firm in their hunt for a new lead executive. Instead, team governor Patrick Dumont is “acting as his own point person.”
This is an… interesting decision, to say the least. Dumont is not a basketball person whatsoever, and most organizations usually hire a search firm. The Chicago Bulls hired one as they look for their replacement for Arturas Karnisovas. Just because a firm is hired doesn’t mean a team will listen, though.
The Mavericks hired a firm in their last search for a GM. They let Donnie Nelson go in 2021 after a long tenure with the Mavs. Instead of listening to the firm, though, Mark Cuban ignored it to hire Nico Harrison, who had no previous NBA front office experience. Harrison had been an executive with Nike, which gave him connections with players like Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and plenty of others.
For a while, that seemed to be working out okay. While he still had some questionable transactions, such as trading for Christian Wood and letting Jalen Brunson walk in free agency, they were still able to make a run to the NBA Finals in 2024. Then, he blew it all up, trading away Luka Doncic for an older and injured Anthony Davis, and the team hasn’t been the same since.
It’s imperative that the Mavericks get this hire correct. The interim Co-GM setup with Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley has performed admirably, but the 2026 NBA Draft is important for the Mavs to get right. It’s their best chance to pair Cooper Flagg with another young star, as they don’t own their first-round pick again until 2031 after this.
Hiring the right GM could help bring in more draft capital by bringing in bad contracts or flipping veterans into picks.
Dumont was able to convince Rick Welts, a Hall of Famer, to come out of retirement to be the CEO and lead the charge for a new arena. Maybe Dumont pulls another rabbit out of his hat for the GM.
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For a moment, it looked like FC Dallas was on its way to another statement win at home tonight.
Petar Musa scored two first half goals, to extend his Golden Boot leading tally to nine goals. But after Dallas grabbed control, the Galaxy found a way back before halftime with goals from Lucas Sanabria and Joseph Paintsil.
The second half brought more chances and more frustration for Dallas, which finished the night with 13 shots to LA’s nine. In the end, the point stretched Dallas’ unbeaten run to five games, though just like last week, it felt like another match where Dallas left points on the table.
Key Moments
7’ – GOAL! After a poor pass back by a LA defender, Petar Musa was free to go one-on-one with the LA goalkeeper. After a touch to get ahead of a defender, Musa slotted home his eighth goal of the season from outside the penalty box.
21’ – Offside! Joaquin Valiente sent a floating ball over the Galaxy defense, where Musa was able to get behind the defense and make an easy play for what appeared to be his second goal of the night. The play was called offside despite a fairly lengthy review period.
38’ – GOAL! This one counts! Musa gets his second of the night off a great ball from Chris Cappis. Logan Farrington picked off the ball in the midfield. He then played Cappis wide to the left of the penalty area. Cappis immediately played a ball back across the goal for Musa to slide in and finish for his ninth of the season.
43’ – Goal LA. Lucas Sanabria got the ball near the top of the penalty area. He took a couple of touches to get outside the penalty box before firing a shot that beat Michael Collodi at the near post.
45+4’ – Goal LA. Gabriel Pec got the ball near the top of the penalty area. He pulled the ball back a bit, which caught a pair of Dallas defenders. This allowed Joseph Painstil to get free behind the Dallas defense as Pec played him through inside the penalty area. Pec immediately smashed home a shot above Collodi to tie the game.
75’ – Another offside goal. This time on a corner kick for Dallas, after a scrum in the penalty box, Kaick hammered home what looked to be the go-ahead goal. But after a few seconds the flag was raised due to a deflection on Osaze Urhoghide, who was in an offside position.
Instant Reaction
Yeah, this is another disappointing result for this team. In a real way, it felt like the first half against Houston from last month. Dallas grabbed the lead, looked in control, but some defensive miscues opened the game up for the visitors to climb back.
With a double-game week coming up, this will certainly be another game where Dallas will wonder ‘what if’ more than anything else…especially when you factor in the two goals called off for offside.
About the Subs
Eric Quill went to his bench for the first time in the 66th minute, as he brought on Santiago Moreno for Logan Farrington. Quill went to his bench again 81st minute with Ran Binyamin and Nolan Norris coming on for Sebastien Ibeagha and Deedson. The final sub came during stoppage time with Herman Johansson and Joaquin Valiente coming off for Sam Sarver and rookie Nick Simmonds, who made his MLS debut.
Man of the Match
No question about it tonight, it has to be Musa.
Where does this fit into the season
As of this writing, the draw puts Dallas into a three-way tie for 5th place with Real Salt Lake and Seattle. Both are in action right now and look firmly in control of their games. I’d expect Dallas to be in 7th place by the end of the night.
What’s next for FC Dallas
Dallas wraps up a three-game homestand next Wednesday night as they host Minnesota United.
Dallas, TX
Akheem Mesidor selected by Cowboys by Blogging The Boys in SB Nation’s community mock draft
Akheem Mesidor, Edge, Miami
Pass rush has been an issue since the Micah Parsons trade. The Rashan Gary trade helped, but Dallas still needs an injection of talent. Akheem Mesidor fits here because his body size allows for some versatility inside and out, something DC Christian Parker utilizes. Mesidor is also a high-motor player with a deep bag of pass rush moves.
His last season at Miami was full of disruption in the offensive backfield and he shows an all-around game, not just a bend-around-the-edge pass rusher. Yes, he’s a little older than you’d like in a rookie (25), but his motor, pass rush toolbox, and ability to play the run matches up with a need and makes him a quality pick at number 20.
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