Before becoming the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns, where he recently won Assistant Coach of the Year for 2023 in his first season on the job, Jim Schwartz had his second stint with the Tennessee Titans as the team’s senior defensive assistant.
When he took the job in 2021, Schwartz was coming off a five-season stint with the Philadelphia Eagles as their defensive coordinator, but he was also dealing with thyroid issues that he originally thought would force him to sit out a year.
Then, the opportunity with the Titans popped up, which allowed Schwartz to keep working, but at his own pace.
“I was at a tough spot in my career,” Schwartz said, according to Jim Wyatt of TennesseeTitans.com. “Because I was like a player. I was injured, and I couldn’t necessarily do my job. And I was thinking I would have to take a full year off. And I was just incredibly grateful to the Titans and Mike Vrabel for allowing me to contribute at my own pace. And my own pace went from a couple of days a week to seven days a week pretty quickly.”
Schwartz notes that the new role helped him “step back” a bit and “enjoy the journey” while also helping out young coaches on the Titans’ staff.
“It was a chance to not only do that, but to mentor some young coaches,” he said. “I was in a different role. I had been a head coach or a coordinator for probably 20 years before that. It gave me just a good chance to be able to step back, and be able to enjoy the journey, and to try and help some younger guys along the way.”
Upon re-joining the Titans, the team saw a marked improvement on defense, with the unit going from the No. 24 scoring defense in 2020 to No. 6 in 2021 and No. 14 in 2022.
The Browns defensive coordinator was previously with the Titans from 2000 through 2008 and revealed things are very different for the franchise from his first stint to his most recent one because of owner Amy Adams Strunk.
“The Titans are in great shape with ownership, with Amy,” he said. “She’s made a dramatic impact on that franchise, providing resources that we might not have had in the 2000s when I was with the club.”
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