Cleveland Browns Address Their Biggest Weakness By Hiring Jim Schwartz As Defensive Coordinator

Can Jim Schwartz fix the Cleveland Browns’ broken defense? It shouldn’t take long to find out, because on defense in 2022 the Browns’ defense was bad in a lot of areas.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski got an early indicator that his defense left a lot to be desired. In the second game of the season the Browns led the Jets 30-17, with less than two minutes left in the game. But in those last two minutes Cleveland’s defense gave up a 66-yard touchdown pass and a 15-yard touchdown pass to lose 31-30.

The defense struggled for most of the rest of the season, to the point that it eventually cost defensive coordinator Joe Woods his job.

In 2022 the Browns gave up the eighth-most rushing yardage in the league (2,295).

Cleveland’s defense allowed 22 rushing touchdowns. Only Chicago and Houston allowed more.

Only six teams allowed more rushing first downs than the Browns.

Only four teams allowed more first downs by penalty than the Browns.

The Browns’ defense had only 20 takeaways, the ninth fewest in the league.

To be fair, there were some areas in which the Browns’ defense excelled. Among all NFL teams Cleveland allowed the fifth-fewest touchdown passes, fifth-fewest passing yards, and only four teams allowed fewer pass completions than the Browns.

But there wasn’t enough of the good to alleviate all the bad, which is why on Wednesday Jim Schwartz was introduced as the Browns’ new defensive coordinator.

“Coach Schwartz’s resume speaks for itself,” said Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski. “He’s a guy I have a ton of respect for. We did not know each other personally before this process, but we have a ton of mutual friends and I’ve admired his career from afar. He’s done it at a high level at multiple stops and we really believe he’s the guy to lead our defense.”

Schwartz, whose career began as an unpaid intern on Bill Belichick’s Browns staff in the early 1990s, comes to the Browns from the Tennessee Titans, where he spent the last two years as a senior defensive assistant.

Prior to that, Schwartz spent five years in Philadelphia, where he was part of Eagles coach Doug Pederson’s 2017 Super Bowl-winning staff. That followed a four-year stint by Schwartz as the head coach of the Detroit Lions from 2014-17.

It’s not necessarily true that those with the longest resumes make the best coaches. But it’s also not necessarily false. The Browns are not the 56-year-old Schwartz’s first rodeo. But if he can bring some order to the circus that was Cleveland’s defense in 2022, it would go a long way towards validating the legitimacy, in the eyes of the Browns’ understandably thin-on-patience fan base, of Stefanski as the franchise’s true pathfinder.

The Browns’ coach could use some help because 2023 will be the final year of his contract. If Schwartz can put out the fires on defense, the Browns are confident, with their robust, star-laden offense, that the organization’s endless march through the NFL desert will finally end.

“In Philadelphia we flipped it quickly and won the Super Bowl the next year,” said the confident, personable Schwartz, who added that he’s “pretty good at coaching coaches.”

Coaching players is another matter, but with decades of experience, Schwartz feels he’s fully equipped in that area as well.

“If you can help them, they’ll listen. So establishing trust is job one for me,” he said. Job two is making quarterbacks uncomfortable.

“The way you affect the game the most is with a pass rush,” said Schwartz, who puts a great deal of importance on being able to do more with less. “If you can rush four, then you can blitz on your own terms.”

Unfortunately for Schwartz, he arrives in Cleveland when the Browns have just one dependable pass rusher, end Myles Garrett, a perennial Pro Bowl selection. The defensive line is Cleveland’s biggest weakness, and Schwartz’s biggest challenge.

The Browns ranked 27^th in the NFL in sacks with just 34, and almost half of them (16) came from Garrett. The two defensive tackle spots are Cleveland’s greatest area of need, and a bookend edge rusher opposite Garrett would make Schwartz’s life that much easier.

“If I’m doing my job, we’ll hold our best players accountable,” Schwartz said.

If Schwartz is doing his job, the Browns’ defense should be doing its job at a much higher level than it did in 2022, when Cleveland gave up 381 points, by far the most of any AFC North team.

The Browns’ 381 points allowed were 35 more than the division rival Steelers allowed, 59 more than the Bengals allowed, and 66 more than the Ravens allowed.

To paraphrase the old saying that applies to all sports: “You win with defense.”

And you lose without it.

Calling Dr. Schwartz.