{"id":688430,"date":"2026-01-19T10:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688430\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T10:24:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:24:36","slug":"browns-head-coach-search-young-candidate-gets-2nd-interview-joins-2-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688430\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns head coach search: Young candidate gets 2nd interview, joins 2 others"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Browns head coach search<\/a> continues on with second interviews getting scheduled<\/a>, and at least two candidates are now off the list<\/a>. There was a report Saturday that Green Bay Packers DC Jeff Hafley had interviewed by the Browns<\/a> and was a \u201clikely finalist\u201d for multiple jobs, but the team has not confirmed that candidate.<\/p>\n

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So far, there have been reports that Cleveland DC Jim Schwartz<\/a> and Baltimore Ravens OC Todd Monken<\/a> will receive second interviews. The Browns have interviewed a slew of younger candidates for the vacant head coaching position, with Schwartz and Monken by far the most veteran of the interviewees.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, news broke that the final and youngest candidate to interview<\/a> for the position, Jacksonville Jaguars OC Grant Udinski, will also get a second interview:<\/p>\n

If hired, Udinski would be the youngest head coach of all time in the NFL by almost a full year. Los Angeles Rams HC Sean McVay currently holds that mark at 30 years and 353 days. Having just turned 30 years old last week, Udkinski would break that record by over 300 days if hired in this cycle.<\/p>\n

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You can hear Udinski here talking about his role with the Minnesota Vikings before heading to Jacksonville:<\/p>\n

Besides Udinski, Cincinnati Bengals OC Dan Pitcher, former Miami Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel, and Hafley are the only known candidates who are not still coaching in the playoffs. That could delay Cleveland getting others in for in-person interviews this week.<\/p>\n

Do you read into Udinski being added to the second interview list a day after his first interview? If you had to choose between the very veteran options (Schwartz, Monken) or one of the younger guys, like Udinski, do you have a general age\/experience-related preference?<\/p>\n

Share your head coach search thoughts in the comment section below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Browns head coach search continues on with second interviews getting scheduled, and at least two candidates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[117,86,85,54,2337,7,20663,345,125,8628,22881,251,259,6,582,23813],"class_list":{"0":"post-688430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-browns","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-browns","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-grant-udinski","15":"tag-green-bay-packers","16":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","17":"tag-jeff-hafley","18":"tag-jim-schwartz","19":"tag-miami-dolphins","20":"tag-minnesota-vikings","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-the-browns","23":"tag-todd-monken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115921280665999377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}