For a head coach in the NFL, the season never really ends

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cleveland Browns head football coach Kevin Stefanski for my “Call Sheet Daily” podcast. Coach Stefanski is set to embark upon training camp with the Browns, and the beginning of another season, which he likens to “going down in the submarine” for the next six months. It truly is an immersive process. But, while many fans see training camp as the beginning of a football season, for NFL coaches, preparations began long ago.

To listen to my interview with Coach Stefanski, click the player below:

The Browns ended their 2024 season with a loss to the Baltimore Ravens on January 4. On January 5, Stefanski assembled his staff to begin preparing for the 2025 season. There was a final meeting with the 2024 team, and exit meetings with the players to conduct, but the planning process for the new season began immediately.

What does that entail? It begins with self-scouting, whereby the staff pours through every play from the previous season to map the team’s strengths and weaknesses, its tendencies, how they fared in situational football, player evaluations, the effectiveness of their scheme, etc.  That process, even with modern technology, is labor intensive and can take months. The reward is the way it clarifies the reasons for a team’s success or failure, and how the latter can be mitigated moving forward. It also helps with personnel decisions, as the first few weeks of the new year are integral in identifying which players a team will resign and which it will move on from.

Meanwhile, the scouting staff is busy preparing for the NFL Scouting Combine and the draft. The compilation of a “big board,” whereby teams evaluate every draft-ready player, is a massive undertaking that is unique to each team. Teams have their own grading systems, their own scales, and their own verbiage when making their evaluations. Their rankings and preferences change throughout this process, as events like the Senior Bowl, the Combine, college Pro Days and the pre-draft interview process can all affect the way an organization values a player. The head coach is heavily involved here — from attending college all-star games and the Combine, to visiting with prospects, to consulting with scouts and evaluators.

The free agency period begins about a week after the Combine, which requires an entirely new set of evaluations. Teams must prioritize their areas of need, identify players they wish to pursue, and make decisions on their own free agents. The head coach and general manager are in close contact throughout this process, not just in terms of personnel evaluations but also over salary cap considerations and how a free agent might fit with the team.

Free agency soon yields to the draft, which is the culmination of the off-season evaluation process. A team’s draft class is the product of an immense amount of research, and also some draft-day gymnastics. There is no telling how a draft will unfold, and teams have to be willing to adapt on the fly — whether that means moving up to acquire a coveted player, moving back if players a team values in a certain draft slot are gone, or taking risks by swinging draft-day trades. If a team has done its research correctly, their big board will yield viable options no matter what twists and turns the draft produces.

Once the draft is over, a team immediately turns to its on-field preparations. Rookie mini-camps ensue the week after the draft. Undrafted free agents and tryout players join the draft class for a tutorial on the team’s playbook and instruction from its staff. OTAs (organized team activities) follow shortly thereafter, and in early June the team conducts mandatory mini-camps for all players under contract. These practices are used as install sessions so that when full training camp begins, a team can hit the ground running and does not need to spend time re-teaching its scheme.

Once mini-camp is over, there is a mandatory “dark” period for approximately six weeks where teams are restricted from holding any types of workouts or having any contact with their players. Call it the “summer vacation” of the National Football League.

Which brings us to the present. As the 32 head coaches in the NFL pack their bags and head to training camp, the 2025 season officially gets underway. But as Coach Stefanski outlined in our interview, the process of preparing for that season began months ago. For a head coach in the NFL, the season never really ends.

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