The Tennessee Titans’ defensive coaching staff recently took a hit after the Cleveland Browns hired Tennessee’s senior defensive assistant, Jim Schwartz, to be their new defensive coordinator.
Schwartz had been with the Titans for the last two seasons. Truthfully, there aren’t many people outside of the Titans’ building who knew what Schwartz was actually responsible for during his time in Tennessee.
Nonetheless, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the defense significantly improved upon his arrival.
We finally got a little more clarity as to what Schwartz’s role entailed during his introductory press conference with the Browns on Friday.
“My role was different,” Schwartz said, according to David Boclair of Sports Illustrated. “My job was to be a mentor. My job was to give an extra set of eyes. My job was to make suggestions and not be ruffled if they’re not acted on.”
He then added:
“My job was not to be the coordinator. But my job was to help the coordinator and to help the position coaches, and maybe say, ‘Hey, look you do it this way. I’ve had success doing it this [other] way in the past. You might want to try this.”
Whatever the veteran defensive coach suggested clearly worked more often than not. When the Titans’ defense was healthy, it was a bona fide top-10 group, and even that feels like it’s underselling the unit.
Although the Browns’ new defensive coordinator may not have gotten the credit, he still feels like he played a role in their success.
“I think I was still able to make a contribution,” Schwartz said “I’m incredibly grateful to Mike Vrabel for giving me the trust to do that, and to [Bowen] for trusting me to do that. But they knew that I didn’t have any objective other than to help and to win. And my job was to do a good job with the job they gave me. So, it was fulfilling.”
Only time will tell how much this departure impacts the defense, but Shane Bowen deserves the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
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