The final head coach opening has been filled as NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport has reported that the team has chosen Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator, Kevin Stefanski as their next head coach:

As noted by Rapoport, Stefanski finished second to Freddie Kitchens in the team’s search a season ago but he now gets his chance to prove that he should have been the choice all along.

CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora reports that Stefanski had long been Paul DePodesta’s choice and with him having more say in the search this time around he made sure to get his guy:

For Stefanski, not getting the job last season may turn out to be a blessing in disguise as the team he walks into now has a lot more talent than what he would’ve had if he got the job last season.

His first order of business will be to create an offense that is able to get the most out of Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Odell Beckham Jr., and Jarvis Landry, which should be relatively easy but Kitchens was unable to do it.

Stefanski has been with the Vikings since 2006 working as an assistant to the head coach (2006–2008), assistant quarterbacks coach(2009-2013), tight ends coach (2014-2015), running backs coach (2016), quarterbacks coach (2017-2018), and interim offensive coordinator in (2018) before taking over full-time this past season.