Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was among three finalists for the Browns‘ head coaching job before they announced their choice Wednesday. As of Monday, Schwartz was reportedly “gaining momentum” for a promotion, but the team instead passed on him and Rams assistant Nate Scheelhaase in favor of ex-Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken. The decision isn’t sitting well with Schwartz.
Although Schwartz is still under contract with the Browns, he has informed those close to him that he wants out of Cleveland, according to Rapoport of NFL Network. Mike Garafolo of NFL Network and Jordan Schultz pass along similar information.
Schwartz’s contract status prevents him from taking another job, but a source told Schultz, “If it has to get ugly, Schwartz is someone who will be perfectly fine making it ugly.”
It probably won’t get to that point, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports says. In an ideal world for the Browns, Schwartz will stay in his current post. If Schwartz truly wants out, though, Jones doesn’t expect the Browns to turn this into a “hostage” situation. The sense in the building is that there’s “no chance” Schwartz will be back in 2026, Schultz adds.
If Schwartz does head elsewhere in 2026, San Francisco is among the teams that could pursue the 59-year-old, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. It’s a situation the 49ers are “undoubtedly monitoring,” Nick Wagoner of ESPN relays. Schwartz would replace former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who left to become the Titans’ head coach. Kyle Shanahan identified assistant head coach Gus Bradley as an “obvious” successor to Saleh last week, but with Schwartz potentially about to hit the market, that may change.
The 49ers are just one possibility for Schwartz, who will surely land on multiple teams’ radars if his divorce with the Browns goes through. While Schwartz had a largely unsuccessful run as the Lions’ head coach from 2009-13, he has long been one of the game’s top assistants on the defensive side. A longtime D-coordinator in Tennessee before he moved to Detroit, Schwartz has worked on defensive staffs with the Bills, Eagles (with whom he won Super Bowl LII), Titans and Browns since 2014.
The Browns finished No. 1 in total defense under Schwartz in 2023, his first year as their coordinator. The unit took steps backward last year, but it was fourth in total defense and 14th in points allowed in 2025. Defensive end Myles Garrett set the single-season sack record with 23, and he has made his affinity for Schwartz known in the past.
“(I) love Jim and I love playing for him,” Garrett told Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com earlier this month.
Garrett requested a trade in early February of last year, though he wound up signing a four-year, $160MM extension a month later. The Browns went on to win just five games in 2025, though, and Garrett made it clear toward the end of the season he’s not interested in a rebuild. Whether Garrett believes a potential Schwartz exit would damage the Browns’ chances of competing in 2026 is unknown, but we may hear his opinion soon enough.
If he really hates Cleveland he should join the Steelers. But I’m sure if they let him out that would be a stipulation that he couldn’t
He would be a good fit for the Steelers since they are obsessed with old coaches that can go 9-8
Mike McCarthy has coached 11 teams to double digit wins. So they are breaking your mold.
McCarthy isn’t the first person I would have picked for the job but I’m 100% fine with the hire… He has been a pretty good coach on some teams with a lot of egos. I think people just crap on him because he doesn’t “look” like a stereotypical head coach
or because his teams are undisciplined and get lots of flags and has incredibly bad clock management skills.
medic87, yeah, were talking about Mike McCarthy not Mike Tomlin
medic87, damn, I stand corrected on the penalties. My bad… His Packers teams were disciplined but not the cowboys… Cowboys have been the most penalized team in the NFL since 2009… It’s the cowboys, I should have just known that.
That’s true but his only 2 quarterbacks were prime a-rod and prime dak while Pittsburgh will either have 43 year old a-rod or anyone
He really can’t do anything about it until next year when his contract is up. They can sit on him until then.
Not true, if another team wants him as DC, an easy work around is to add Assistant Head Coach to his title and it would be viewed by the league as a legitimate promotion rather than a lateral move.
The league only recognizes two promotions, position coach to coordinator or coordinator to HC. The asst HC is a nice touch but the Browns do not need to honor an interview request.
This would reflect poorly on them and may prevent talented coaches from wanting to sign there in the future, though, which is why teams usually allow coordinators to interview for similar promotions that aren’t officially recognized by the league (like going from being a non-play calling coordinator to a play calling one, for example).
You want to employ a DC who is disgruntled and wants to be elsewhere? Sounds exactly like the Browns MO.
gruntled coaches tend to more successful.
Legally he can’t do anything. But in the real world teams prefer to not have their coordinators feel like hostages.
I wouldn’t say Schwartz is a great DC. He has had great players for his success. His secondary was consistently getting burnt.
You do realize he was the DC for the Eagles 2017 Super Bowl winning team, right?
He’s not wrong though. They gave up 500 yards in that game.
But the Browns’ DBs on the other hand have been really solid under him.
He also ran the Bills defense during the cold front era where they broke the franchise record for sacks. Dude is legit.
Hoping Buffalo would be the first team to step up with an interview if he gets released
Nick Fairley’s career trajectory is also directly tied to Jim Schwartz. For what it’s worth.
That kid was a hothead. So was Suh but the difference is Suh was so good people kind of just accepted it.
Yeah, but they were both utterly destructive for about a three year period there as interior tackles. Ferocious players…often too much so.
Another typical day with the Cleveland Browns…
Bye 👋 don’t let the door hit you on the way out …… won’t be hard to replace you with that defense….
I agree that you can’t succeed without the right players, but having the right DC is also part of the equation for success. The Browns will learn the truth to the adage “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”… again. Or more likely, they won’t learn.
He can be replaced, we all can. Jim should have sold the Browns on his plan to fix the offense, he obviously didn’t… yet he’s mad? Seems he should have interviewed better and maybe he WOULD have been named the HC….
How do you know all these things? Do you have lottery numbers too?
If Schwartz had his Browns contract voided he’d be unemployed for as long as it took him to decide what DC job offer he wanted to accept.
Well yeah. To get past up for a promotion hurts.
He was in COMPLETE control on how he interviewed. If he wanted a promotion, he should have prepared better for his interview ….
I wouldn’t trust that an owner of the team who traded multiple firsts and gave a fully guaranteed contract to Watson as a good judge of character. I’m sure Schwartz interviewed just fine.
Jimmy didn’t make the selection, Andrew Berry did. We need a established offensive coach to develop our offense, Schwartz is a defensive coach…that doesn’t suggest he interviewed well….
Maybe he interviewed well and since he’s already in the organization and the leader of a top tier defense, they chose an offense oriented head coach. I’m assuming the Browns felt Gym Shorts would stay on as the DC since he was already under contract and from what I’ve gathered, the players like him. Or…you’re right and he his offensive philosophy didn’t jive with the front office.
Lmao what a shitshow
I won’t disagree that Cleveland is a shit show, but people are using really normal events to claim as proof of said shit show.
This is an example. The fact that Defensive Coordinator is leaving because he wasn’t hired as Head Coach is not surprising. In fact, it would have been surprising had he stayed. Cleveland had made many questionable moves over the years, but hiring the guy they wanted but sacrificing the DC as a result isn’t one of them. Further, hiring the DC as HC because the DC is threatening to leave is the foolish move. That is how we got Freddie Kitchens.
While I’m at it, all the clutching of pearls about Cleveland’s hiring process is ridiculous. Having a careful hiring process that is deliberate, thorough and thoughtful is stupid? The best firms in the country hire that way and it should be no different in the NFL. If it takes an extra week to make it happen, so be it.
I agree
or…….your organization is so bad and dysfunctional, you DONT get the pick of the litter, you get stuck with the runt. “Careful hiring process, that is deliberate and thorough” is code words for ” nobody wants to coach our team, so we have to wait for all the good coaches to get hired and pick from the scraps once everybody else makes their hires”
I agree with your first point but not your second. We clearly didn’t get our choice of coaches. Why? Because we are one of the worst teams in the league. But if you watch the Browns front office, they actually are pretty professional – until they aren’t. The Watson decision is an example of this. They are trying to be a leading franchise through analytics and other things brought in from the business world, like their interview process, for example.
Just because they aren’t a good team doesn’t mean everyone in the front office is an idiot. They don’t do EVERYTHING wrong. The NFL is really, really competitive and even if you are good at what you do you still might lose.
People are being hyperbolic about the Browns’ head coach search and mischaracterizing good, bright people who might not be good and bright enough to succeed in one of the most competitive environments there is.
Fair point
My comment had nothing to do with if the Browns have smart people or not, I never called anyone stupid or an idiot. Just poorly run and dysfunctional for whatever reasons.
“If it has to get ugly, Schwartz is someone who will be perfectly fine making it ugly.”
Well, Jim is an old school guy and they are a dying breed. Almost all modern era coaches provide pressers that sound identical. The formula has become ultra boring. I’m sure Goodell would love to drive all the loose cannons out of the league and replace them with clones of himself. I hope guys like Schwartz continue to resist that… but time is working against them.
What does that have to do with Schwartz throwing a fit 🤔 he should have interviewed better if he wanted to be a HC again …
“he should have interviewed better” really means he should have conformed to what they wanted him to be, rather than be true to himself. Many candidates certainly go down that road but I respect the people who don’t try to be something they aren’t.
Maybe he needed to be more “Clevelandy” and committed to the owner’s losing attitude. The problem with that HC position is getting quality assistants this late in the hiring game (not to mention finding any with interest in working for the Browns) is going to be very difficult.
I think the league in general is trending away from individualists and mavericks. Non conformists will be at a distinct disadvantage finding employment. Ironically, most successful people are those that follow their own path instead of just going with the herd mentality.
This is expected, he just got passed over. Monkey isn’t some can’t miss guy where you understand being passed on.
Monken is a very well regarded OC , which is exactly what the Browns need to become a good offense..had they hired Schwartz as the new HC just to make him happy…that’s not fixing the offense…let Schwartz go…trade him for draft picks to the 49ers! It won’t be hard to find a top DC to replace him….
Uhh yes it will be difficult to replace him.
Monkey see monkey do😁
Autocorrect is a problem but I do call Todd Monken,Todd Monkey sometimes.
He should go to Buffalo – Babich just got hired by Packers.
No coach should have to stay or be held to contract when new HC hired. Even worse when you wanted the job
Go get him raiders. Bring in klubiak as OC and heir apparent. Or bring Jim as the dc and klubs as the Hc.
I suspect the Browns could give Schwartz a pay bump to the point he’s okay with staying. Nothing patches up rift like a ton of money.
It worked with Myles Garrett last year too.
They’ll certainly try it. My first thought was this as well; but if that story is true about Schwartz asking players to talk him up is true, this may be too big a pride thing to get over.in his mind, he probably feels like he carried the team these years, just to get passed over for a guy that he feels hasn’t offered as much as he has to the Browns, or will-and, on top of that, a guy that’s he’s studied for the last three years as a division rival. I wouldn’t discount at all that Cleveland hiring Monken specifically had something to do with it.
Don Corleone will make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Does anyone know if Schwartz owns some horses?
Do people not remember how legendarily bad the Schwartz-Millen Lions were?
Nope they don’t….but the Browns certainly know….they gave him a solid chance to be their new HC but obviously he didn’t interview well or they might have risked promoting him…bottom line…Berry’s job is to hire the guy he feels best to fix the offense and Monken is certainly a very solid candidate to do that ..Schwartz is acting like a 5yr old who didn’t get his way. Browns knew he would and are prepared to move on ..goal is to win as a team…not baby sit a 59 yr old disgruntled DC….
Probably not, since the GM when Schwartz was there was Martin Mayhew.
They also made the playoffs in his third year with a tenacious defense and a double digit win season, losing a controversial game to the Cowboys. Maybe Schwartz will be better in his second run, maybe he won’t, but his time in Detroit wasn’t a complete failure.
They were terrible before with Millen, they became a much better team with Schwartz. The first time Stafford led the team to the playoffs.
I think you’re misremembering. Schwartz began their turnaround.
Schwartz might just need a few days to digest Monken being chosen as HC. Have a decent sit down to assess perspectives maybe get a bit extra autonomy on defense personnel, a pile of extra cash and Assistant HC title and ego massaged a bit to settle down and just do the job.
Unless he wants to try for HC at other bottom tier options
He could do like Buddy Ryan with the Bears and ignore the HC and offense
Man, some people sure seem to know a lot about the inner workings of the Browns Organization and processes. My life experience has taught me that there is usually more to it than most people realize like politics. Its not usually about just qualifications, there’s usually something else at play.
Browns ca. promote him to QBs Coach 😉
Kubiak paired with Schwartz in Vegas works for me. Bring in Andrew Janocko as OC
and fill out the rest of the staff with underlings that can be brought from Seattle/Cleveland.
Draft Mendoza, and use the remaining draft picks and spend aggressively on the OL and defense.
Then, we’d have ourselves a competitive football team next season and beyond.
As a 49er fan and e disliked this guy since he tried to embarrass Jim Harbaugh that time the 49ers played the Lions and beat them