Former Minnesota Vikings Coach Fired

The Minnesota Vikings ended their 2025 regular season with a 9-8 record, after they defeated the Green Bay Packers’ B-squad 16-0 in week 18.

With the first round of the 2025-26 NFL Playoffs on deck and the Packers locked in as the 7-seed in the NFC, the Vikings’ division rival waved the white flag and sat most of their starters, in order to get/stay healthy for the postseason.

Meanwhile, Minnesota — who started the season 4-8 and finished on a five-game win streak — had no such concerns. The Vikings were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention weeks ago.

Browns fire MN Vikings raised coach Kevin Stefanski

Kevin Stefanski was baptized and raised by the MN Vikings. And in 2025, his Cleveland Browns lived a very similar reality to his former team, after Cleveland was eliminated from playoff contention about a month ago (week 14).

In the weeks since, there have been rumblings that the Browns could choose to move on from their 2x NFL Coach of the Year Award winner at the end of the season. And this morning, on “Black Monday” in the NFL, Stefanski was one of the first coaches fired.

Sources: Kevin Stefanski is out as the Browns head coach.

After moving on from Cleveland, Stefanski now is expected to be one of the top candidates in this hiring cycle. pic.twitter.com/db3fFLEZRh

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 5, 2026

We have tremendous gratitude for Kevin’s leadership of the Cleveland Browns over the last six seasons. He is a good football coach and an even better person. We appreciate all his hard work and dedication to our organization but our results over the last two seasons have not been satisfactory, and we believe a change at the head coaching position is necessary. We wish Kevin, Michelle and the Stefanski family all the best in the future. Andrew Berry will continue to lead our football operations. The entirety of our focus is on building a team that brings our fans the success they long deserve, and we will continue to work relentlessly towards that goal and invest whatever resources necessary to build a winning football program. Andrew will immediately begin our thorough process to find an outstanding new head coach and leader of our football team. We have an exciting young core to build upon, and Andrew and his team are intent on adding talent to this core and building out a roster that can achieve sustainable success.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM [BROWNS OWNERS] DEE AND JIMMY HASLAM

Browns fire their best head coach in modern history

Kevin Stefanski lasted six seasons in Cleveland, which is by far the longest of any Browns head coach since Blanton Collier coached for eight seasons from 1963-1970.

The only other coach in Browns history to walk the sideline more times than Stefanski’s 100 games was NFL Hall of Famer and 7-time Champion, Paul Brown, who lead Cleveland for 16 seasons from 1946 to 1962, before passing the baton to Collier, who won one championship of his own.

While Stefanski was undoubtedly the most successful head coach in modern Browns history, the former Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator finished with a losing 44-56 regular season record and won just ONE playoff game in six seasons.

The #Browns are firing coach Kevin Stefanski, a two-time coach of the year, after two tough seasons in a row.

While Cleveland starts over with a new voice, Stefanski should be a top candidate in several places. pic.twitter.com/js9JDZKwyB

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 5, 2026

Prior to his underwhelming (but historical) run in Cleveland. Kevin Stefanski spent 13 years in the Minnesota Vikings organization, rising all the way up the organizational ranks — starting as Brad Childress’ assistant from 2006-2008 all the way to offensive coordinator in 2019 — before he left for the Browns head coaching job.

Cautionary tale for Minnesota Vikings head coach

Kevin Stefanski’s firing is a cautionary tale for current Vikings head coach, Kevin O’Connell, who will begin his fifth season at the helm in Minnesota next year. KOC will enter 2026 with a winning regular season record of 42-25, but the Vikings are 0-2 in the playoffs under his leadership.

Stefanski went into his fifth year in Cleveland with a 40-30 regular season record and 1-2 record in the playoffs. Two missed postseasons later… and Kevin is no longer employed with the Browns.

In other words, if Kevin wants to make sure his job stays secure into the future, he needs to get Minnesota back to the playoffs NEXT season, and even win postseason game or two.

Anything short of that could O’Connell’s job in jeopardy, or at the very least, heat up his seat entering 2027.