Browns DC Jim Schwartz thankful for most recent stint with Titans

Jim Schwartz, who recently won Assistant Coach of the Year, also noted how big of an impact owner Amy Adams Strunk has had on the Titans.

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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Browns fans go nuts as Jim Schwartz wins Assistant Coach of the Year

The Browns DC turned Cleveland into one of the leagues best defenses

One of the best moves of the 2023 Cleveland Browns offseason was hiring veteran defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz to replace Joe Woods.

They rebuilt the defensive line and Schwartz made the most of the talent he had moving players around and playing to their strengths resulting in one of the best starts to a season a defense has ever had.

Fans were excited to move on from Woods and add Schwartz and now he has one the highest honor an assistant coach can get for the 2023 season. What a year Schwartz had as he crafted the Browns defense in his aggressive image and boy did the fans love watching his guys attack opposing offenses.

The award was announced a little early but the fans took to social media to celebrate their defensive coach winning the award he so deserved. Here are some of the reactions from fans on Twitter/X after the award was announced.

Browns DC Jim Schwartz wins NFL Assistant Coach of the Year Award

Congrats to Jim Schwartz!

The Cleveland Browns have their first winner of the evening as defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has won NFL Assistant Coach of the Year.

Was there really any doubt?

Schwartz coordinated the top defensive unit in the NFL in 2023, and not by a close margin. He had the secondary playing at a high level, led linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah to a breakout season, and more.

And good news for the Browns? He will be back as defensive coordinator again next year after not receiving a single head coaching interview.

We will now wait to see what happens with Myles Garrett, who is up for NFL Defensive Player of the Year, head coach Kevin Stefanski, who is the betting favorite to win NFL Coach of the Year, and quarterback Joe Flacco, who is in the running for NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

Schwartz edged out the likes of Houston Texans’ offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, and more to take home the hardware.

Congratulations, Coach!

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Browns DC Jim Schwartz named AP 2023 NFL Assistant Coach of the Year

Cleveland Browns DC Jim Schwartz named AP 2023 NFL Assistant Coach of the Year over Ravens Todd Monken and former Ravens DC Mike Macdonald

Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was named the Associated Press 2023 NFL Assistant Coach of the Year on Thursday night at NFL Honors in Las Vegas.

Schwartz’s defense in Cleveland finished first in the league in yards allowed (270.2 per game), tied for fifth in takeaways (28) and sixth in sacks (49) in 2023.

In 2022, the Browns allowed 331.2 YPG, with ten takeaways and 34 sacks — Schwartz’s first year in Cleveland.

Baltimore had the NFL’s most talked about defense, but the Browns led the league in first downs allowed (253), third-down conversion rate (29.1%), and fourth-down conversion rate (40%). In comparison, opposing offenses were forced into three-and-outs on 48.6% of total drives against Cleveland, which ranked best in the NFL, per NFL Research.

Schwartz beat out former Ravens DC Mike Macdonald, Lions OC Ben Johnson, Texans OC Bobby Slowik, and current Ravens OC Todd Monken for the award.

Browns Studs and Duds: 5 duds from the season-ending loss to Texans

The Cleveland Browns duds in their season finale vs. the Houston Texans

The Cleveland Browns, led by Kevin Stefanski and Jim Schwartz, concluded a remarkable season with a humiliating playoff loss to the Houston Texans. The magical carriage finally turned back into the big, orange pumpkin that we all learned to love.

The clock didnā€™t strike midnight until the second half when Joe Flacco threw two pick-sixes on back-to-back drives. The first interception was a misfire when he attempted to whip the ball out of bounds before his legs, and the power they generated, were taken out. The second interception was a forced error on fourth and two.

The Browns’ offense couldnā€™t overcome spotting the Texans 14 points and slid further behind as they tried to catch up. Flacco had been playing very well up to that point. The teamā€™s failures happened as a collective. Thereā€™s no singular player to blame; even the players who performed well had costly mistakes.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah played every snap on defense for the first time in his career. He made many plays around the ball. However, he failed to contain the edge on Devin Singletaryā€™s 19-yard touchdown run that iced the game.

The team had a meltdown. In the final studs and duds, there are only ā€œduds,ā€ starting with the coaching staff who failed to put the players in positions to succeed.

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Stock up, stock down for potential Seahawks hires from Wild-Card weekend

Let’s review who’s up and whos down.

News has been quiet on the Seahawks’ head coach search, aside from some vague reported interest in Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. Hopefully this week things will begin to pick up as the playoffs move along.

However, based on what’s already happened in the Wild Card round on Saturday and Sunday, a few potential head coach hires have seen their stock drop off pretty dramatically. Let’s review who’s up and who’s down.

Browns’ refusal to adapt on defense cost them dearly against C.J. Stroud

The Browns lost their wild-card game against the Texans because Jim Schwartz, their usually brilliant DC, refused to adapt to C.J. Stroud.

If you were to point to one factor that ended the Cleveland Browns’ 2023 season with their 45-14 loss to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round, you might say that Joe Flacco’s pick-sixes on consecutive drives. That obviously wasn’t beneficial, but it’s important to note that the Texans already had a 24-14 lead before Flacco’s first pick-six with 6:05 left in the third quarter, and Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud had completed 11 of 16 passes for 236 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 151.0 in the first half alone.

As great as Stroud has been throughout his rookie season, this was a bit of a surprise. Jim Schwartz’s Browns defense came into this game ranked second in Defensive DVOA and second in Pass Defense DVOA, behind only the Baltimore Ravens in both instances. But Schwartz refused to bend to the one reality he had right in front of him — that Stroud was set up well to take advantage of the Browns’ primary coverage concept.

In the regular season, the Browns played single-high coverage — either Cover-1 or Cover-3 on 64% of their snaps, the NFLā€™s highest rate.

But C.J. Stroud against Cover-1 and Cover-3 in the regular season? Try 141 of 228 for 2,054 yards, 1,335 air yards, 11 touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 105.4. Only Dak Prescott and Lamar Jackson had higher passer ratings against middle-of-the-field closed coverage in the regular season.

How that played out in this game was in no way beneficial to Schwartz and his players. Stroud faced single-high coverage on 16 of his 21 passing attempts in the game, and at no time did Stroud have to deal with any kind of wrinkle pre-snap to post-snap to muddy the picture and delay his reads and throws.

The worst part may have been that this was the plan going in.

“I think playoffs come down to who can be themselves the best, if that makes sense,” Schwartz said last Wednesday. “Can we be the best version of ourselves versus the Texans being the best version of themselves? I think thatā€™s when itā€™s all said and done. Youā€™ve got 17 games under your belt. Thereā€™s not a whole lot youā€™re going to pull out that another team hasnā€™t seen. And really at this point of the year, people are going with what they do best. I think that has a lot to do with it. I really canā€™t worry about him and how heā€™ll treat the game.”

Sure, but assuming that a rookie quarterback (no matter how advanced) has already seen everything you might throw at him, so you’re just going to do your thing, no matter how good he might be against it? That’s a bit of a stretch, and in the end, that cost the Browns the game more than anything else.

Edge-rusher Myles Garrett confirmed this after the game.

ā€œ[Schwartz] said from the beginning he’s going to ride with what got us here, and he’s not going to change up. There’s not going to be any magic call that’s going to get us out of anything or get us through anything. I guess they were just doing things a little bit different that kept us off balance, and I think just the tempo which they were doing it, whether it was running the ball a little bit differently than we had expected, getting the ball out on time, trying to just delay us enough up front to get the ball to their skill players and make plays. We have to be able to make plays all across the field, not just up front or not just on the back end. It’s all together.ā€

And that’s the problem — you never want to be behind the schematic eight-ball when you don’t need to be. The play shown above is Stroud’s 27-yard completion to receiver John Metchie with 1:34 left in the first quarter; it was not the first or last time that Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik’s single-high beaters foiled Cleveland’s attempts to stop them.

This 21-yard pass to receiver Nico Collins with 11:51 left in the first quarter — the Texans’ second offensive play of the game — had Collins running the deep over out of 21 personnel — two backs, one tight end, and two receivers. Noah Brown’s vertical route from the left side cleared safety Juan Thornhill, who had to watch Brown and Collins at the same time, and afforded Stroud an easy read and throw underneath, with cornerback Denzel Ward a step behind Collins.

Stroud’s 76-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brevin Jordan with 12:13 left in the first half was a simple leak to the flat out of 22 personnel — two tight end and two backs — but as Greg Cosell and I detailed in our game preview, the Browns will tend to gear up for the run against heavy personnel (hat tip to Robert Mays and Nate Tice of The Athletic Football Show for the actual numbers) no matter the down and distance. Slowik had to know this, and he had to know that if Schwartz didn’t flip the script, his young quarterback could feast. That’s what happened here.

This is not to malign Jim Schwartz as a defensive coordinator — he’s as responsible as anybody for the Browns’ turnaround this season. But Schwartz may spend some time this offseason wondering why he didn’t tailor his game plan more to Houston’s extraordinary young quarterback — and the offensive genius behind that quarterback’s most meaningful plays.

4 Downs: Texans have antidote for Flacco Fever, end Browns’ season

The Browns’ season has come to an end.

The Houston Texans have ended the season of the Cleveland Browns. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz could not keep up with C.J. Stroud, quarterback Joe Flacco came back to earth, and the Browns are heading home.

By a miserable score of 45-14, the Browns could not overcome a poor defensive showing in the first half, combined with two back-breaking turnovers to start the second half. The magic ran out on what was a season that included an 11-win run despite injury after injury. The Browns were relentless and resilient.

But in the end that was not enough as Stroud and the Texans did not have to sweat much in this Wild Card win. There are always elements of the game to isolate and point out, however, and that is just what we do here.

For the last time this season, here is your 4 Downs for this loss to the Texans as the Browns’ fun, improbable season has come to an end.

C.J. Stroud has been killing single-high coverage all season, and the Browns didn’t get it

C.J. Stroud and the Texans chopped up the Browns’ usually stingy defense in the first half, and here’s how they did it.

Before Saturday’s wild-card game between the Houston Texans and the Cleveland Browns got started, it was clear that one key factor was going to be how often the Browns play single-high coverage vs. how Texans rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud demolishes one-deep stuff.

The Browns played single-high on 64% of their defensive snaps in the regular season, the NFLā€™s highest rate. But Stroud against Cover-1 and Cover-3 in the regular season? He completed 141 of 228 for 2,054 yards, 1,335 air yards, 11 touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 105.4 ā€“ only Dak Prescott and Lamar Jackson have higher passer ratings against Middle-of-the-field closed coverage this season.

It took little time for Stroud to show his mastery of single-high stuff in this game. With 11 seconds left in the first quarter, Stroud hit receiver Nico Collins on this fake-toss/Tunnel screen for a 15-yard touchdown.

The Browns had Juan Thornhill as their only deep safety.

Then, with 12:00 left in the first half, Stroud completed this 76-yard touchdown to tight end Brevin Jordan.

This time, Ronnie Hickman was the only deep safety on the bootleg pass.

Not that Schwartz moving to two-high helped much. Stroud’s third touchdown pass of the first half — a 37-yarder to tight end Dalton Schultz — saw the Browns with two deep safeties, and some miscommunication issues. Meanwhile, Stroud was once again showing outstanding deep touch when required.

At the half, Stroud was already setting rookie postseason records against one of the NFL’s stingiest defenses. And offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik is putting together quite a head coach resume.

One potential Seahawks head coach candidate has great track record vs. Kyle Shanahan

One Seahawks head coach candidate has great track record vs. Kyle Shanahan

For the first time in a long time, the Seattle Seahawks are searching for a new head coach. The transition away from Pete Carroll is sure to be a difficult one – both emotionally and in football terms. Not many coaches are able to win 147 games over the course of 14 seasons in this league.

The primary challenge for whoever fills Carroll’s impossibly large (presumably Monarchs) shoes will have to deal with the juggernaut in the City by the Bay, the San Francisco 49ers. Led by offensive guru Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers have become the class of the league.

But one potential candidate might just have the silver bullet: Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

There is one thing inaccurate about this tweet from Daniel Jeremiah: Schwartz’s teams are now actually 9-1 against Shanahan, which includes Cleveland knocking San Francisco from the ranks of the unbeatens in a 19-17 Week 6 win. Schwartz’s success is documented here.

It is unknown which direction the Seahawks will go when it comes to finding their next head coach. Carroll was known as defensive-minded, but his defenses for the last two years have been atrocious. Perhaps Seattle will buck the trend of offensive coaches and find someone to right the ship on the other side of the ball.

Schwartz has not been a head coach since he was fired by the Detroit Lions in 2013. But given how good his defenses have been everywhere he’s gone, perhaps now is the time for a second shot.

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