Cleveland Browns and New York Jets share similar schematic identities

As the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets get set for battle, their schematic similarities closely align.

The Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets are as close to schematic mirrors of each other as you can find. When the teams face on Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, both sides of the ball will be very familiar with what the other side normally runs at its core level.

The Browns and Jets both run the wide zone scheme and have coaches that reach all the way back to Mike Shanahan, the coach that made this offense popular. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, Jets’ head coach Robert Salah and Browns’ defensive coordinator have worked together previously and both use a lot of zone defense and one specific zone defense specifically.

Browns’ head coach acknowledged this when he said their defense and Jets’ defense share some DNA, but the truth is both sides of the ball share some DNA. We take a look at how the coaches in this game were influenced and how their coaching trees track back to the same sources.