CLEVELAND, Ohio — If Browns fans had their say, Cleveland’s coaching search might already be over.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, for them, the most familiar name is the choice for the top job.

I asked our Football Insider subscribers for their opinion on the head coach search and received over 70 replies. The majority of those responses favored defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Schwartz, who has been the DC in Cleveland since 2023, will do a second interview with the team on Monday, a league source told cleveland.com.

The most common sentiments for keeping Schwartz focused on stability, leadership, experience and anxiety — anxiety that losing Schwartz would mean the one unit that has had consistent success over the last three seasons would risk regressing.

Here are several of their responses (answers have been edited for length and clarity):

“He provides the stability and continuity they preach, he fits the ‘leader of men’ personality they supposedly want, he has skin in the game from 1) coaching here before and 2) wanting to succeed in his second chance at head coaching, and most importantly – the players have openly said that they WANT to play for him. Having immediate buy-in from players is a HUGE starting point.” – Jon in Wadsworth, Ohio

“Has to be Jim Schwartz. Players swear by him. Clearly good on details and strategy … I think we risk losing Schwartz if we hire a defensive coordinator as new coach. Would you stay? So for both positive and negative reasons he has earned it.” – Hershel in Port Washington, N.Y.

“Most experienced and proven coordinator and HC available (aside Tomlin who is not in the running). His head coach record shows an ability to win: W-L record before his hire was 0-16, followed by 2, 6, and 10 wins. He followed his single dip year of 4 wins with 7 wins before being fired. Retaining him would minimally disrupt defense continuity.” -Karloso in Plymouth, Mass.

“I want Jim Schwartz. It guarantees the defense won’t miss a beat and continues to be the team’s biggest asset. He has previous experience turning around a franchise mired in a decades long funk similar to the Browns … He is liked and respected by everyone and I think will have a firm hand on team discipline.” -Gary in Scottsdale, Ariz.

But it’s not just among fans that Schwartz is the most popular name.

The fans echo players

Schwartz also has the full support of his defenders, who have openly vouched for him to get a chance at the open head coaching job.

That includes soon-to-be two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and NFL single-season sack record holder Myles Garrett, and five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward.

“I have so much love and respect for Coach Schwartz,” Ward said the day after the season ended. “Me, I would highly recommend Coach Schwartz for a head coaching job here, definitely.

“He’s a great coach. He’s helped my game tremendously, puts us in great positions, great leader. I can’t say enough great things about him, but I think he’s a guy that who you want in a coach and somebody to lead a team. And yeah, I know he’s a guy, he’s a great guy.”

Garrett gave his vote of confidence for Schwartz right before Cleveland’s final game against the Bengals.

The same day, he did not give that full vote of confidence to former head coach Kevin Stefanski, saying they had “more downs than ups” during his six seasons that included two playoff appearances, but three losing campaigns.

“I like Jim,” Garrett said. “I like the coaches that we have. So I don’t know what’s going to be in the future. Would I like to play under Jim? Would I like to keep the team and for us to improve? Absolutely. But these are things that are handled by people who sign my checks so they make bigger decisions than I can account for.

“So I’m going to allow them to do what they do, give my opinions as they ask for it. And then I’ve got to rock with whoever they have here, but love Jim and I love playing for him.”

Success in Schwartz’s own way

Of course, Garrett and Ward have had plenty of success under Schwartz.

It’s success fans have noticed too. Schwartz is the candidate they are most familiar with, and essentially, all they’ve known with him in Cleveland is success on his side of the ball.

Since Schwartz took over in 2023, Cleveland has been the best team in the league in total yards allowed per game (298.6), and is the only team in the league to allow fewer than 300 yards over that span.

The Browns also rank first in first downs allowed per game, third down conversion percentage, fourth down conversion percentage, passing yards allowed per game, and tackles for loss over that three-season stretch.

Last week, I wrote about how Schwartz looms large amid this coaching search for one big reason: not a lot of coordinators run a system similar to his

The Browns have interviewed Seattle DC Aden Durde, Chargers DC Jesse Minter, and as Cleveland.com reported earlier this week, are set to put in an interview request for Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula.

All of those defenses run much more zone, and disguised zone, with fewer down linemen and two high safeties.

Contrast that with Schwartz’s looks that consist of one-high looks, much more man, and sometimes, as many as five or six down linemen with an eight- or nine-man rotations upfront.

“It’s different,” Browns safety Grant Delpit said on locker clean out day. “I don’t think anybody’s really lining up one-high defense like us and doing the things we’re doing, playing man and disguise-wise and changing it up.

“Maybe we’ll see more of that over the next few years because teams have seen the success. But of course it’s a unique defense and I feel like three years in it, we’ve molded well with it. So why not keep going?”

Granted, no one runs strictly a base defense anymore, but any of those other systems would bring unavoidable changes.

The argument

If the Browns don’t go with Schwartz, and go with a different defensive coordinator for their head coaching position, they would not only would they risk losing Schwartz, but could wind up restructuring their defense in a major way.

I would argue that would be a mistake, because the defense has been largely built in his image.

There’s been a youth movement on their D-line, particularly on the interior, where Cleveland has used premium draft capital over the last two years to add Mason Graham and Mike Hall Jr. Opposite of Garrett, they’ve developed their own later-round talent in Isaiah McGuire and Alex Wright, who just earned a three-year extension.

The Browns don’t use a lot of two-high safety looks, and barring some added draft capital in that room, I would argue they don’t have the personnel to run those looks. The safety room may be the weakest on the defense given how good Carson Schwesinger and Devin Bush have been in the linebacker core.

With the man-heavy system they do run, they have the ability to force favorable matchups (look no further than the end of their Week 17 win over the Steelers, when Aaron Rodgers targeted Ward three straight times with the game on the line).

Part of the reason the Browns traded Greg Newsome II for Tyson Campbell this year was because they thought Campbell could thrive in this man-heavy scheme. They were right. It was a move that paid off so well that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam even cited it when talking about why they decided to retain GM Andrew Berry.

But none of this changes the fact that the Browns need the most help on the offensive side of the ball.

So wouldn’t it make more sense to target an offensive-minded coach and keep Schwartz?

In theory, that would still work.

But the flip side is, the Browns could hire Schwartz as the head coach, not risk losing him and disrupting that side of the ball, and still focus on hiring a really good offensive coordinator, something our Football Insiders pointed out numerous times as well.

How this will all play out is still anyone’s guess.

But Schwartz getting that second interview is good news for all the fans who would like to see him in the top job.

Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.