Browns<\/a> and Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter mutually agreed on Wednesday night to cancel his second interview with the Browns on Thursday for their head coach vacancy, league sources told cleveland.com.<\/p>\nThe interview was canceled because Minter feels he has a better chance of being hired by one of the other teams that are pursuing him as head coach. He\u2019s had second interviews with teams such as the Raiders and Ravens, and might have more coming. <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel withdrew his name from consideration and canceled his second interview on Wednesday because he was set to take the Chargers offensive coordinator job that day. <\/p>\n
It leaves four finalists for the Browns job in their own defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase.<\/p>\n
The Browns must also interview one more diverse candidate besides Scheelhaase to satisfy the NFL\u2019s Rooney Rule. <\/p>\n
With Minter off the books today, the Browns have Udinski on Friday and Scheelhaase at the earliest on Monday, after he faces the Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Cleveland.com reported earlier Thursday that Schwartz and Monken, both 59, are still very much in the running for the job after having their second interviews on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. <\/p>\n
If Schwartz doesn\u2019t get the job, it remains to be seen if he\u2019ll want to stick around as coordinator. The Browns have articulated to all of their finalists that they would like Schwartz to remain as coordinator if he doesn\u2019t get promoted, but the finalists also know that they have the authority to assemble their own staff. <\/p>\n
Schwartz is the lone remaining defensive finalist, and the only one with head coach experience, having gone 29-51 in the regular season with the Lions from 2009-13, and 0-1 in the playoffs. But he\u2019s worked for four different teams since then as a coordinator or senior defensive assistant, and won a Super Bowl with the Eagles after the 2017 season.<\/p>\n
He has also molded the Browns into one of the best defenses in the NFL over the past three seasons, and has coached Myles Garrett to what will soon be two NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards. Browns rookie linebacker Carson Schwesinger is also the favorite to win NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n
Schwartz has also interviewed with the Ravens for their head coach vacancy, and has other possible coordinator opportunities. <\/p>\n
Monken, the Browns\u2019 offensive coordinator in 2019 under Freddie Kitchens, brings 11 years NFL coaching experience, and 37 in coaching overall.<\/p>\n
The Browns admire the impact he\u2019s had on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense, taking the unit to an elite level during his three-year stint. Jackson also earned his second AP NFL MVP honors under Monken\u2019s guidance in 2023, producing the NFL\u2019s fourth-best passer rating (102.7), and throwing for 3,678 yards with 24 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. <\/p>\n
Jackson added 821 rushing yards and five TDs to become the only QB in NFL history with multiple seasons (also 2019) reaching the incredible 3,000\/800 milestone. <\/p>\n
In his first two seasons at the helm, Monken\u2019s offenses ranked first in red zone TD pct. (67.9), rushing yards per game (172.1) and passer rating (110.8) and second in points per game (28.4), yards per play (6.3) and total yards per game (397.6) during this span. <\/p>\n
He was also coordinator of the Bucs from 2016-18 before joining the Browns for Kitchens\u2019 one-and-done season.<\/p>\n
If Monken gets the job, it\u2019s possible he\u2019ll keep Schwartz as defensive coordinator, and then just have to build out his offensive staff. If he doesn\u2019t get the head coach job or get hired here as coordinator, he has a chance to join John Harbaugh as offensive coordinator with the Giants. Harbaugh seems to be keeping the job open for Monken in the event he doesn\u2019t become Browns head coach. <\/p>\n
But the Browns are also very intrigued by their two rising offensive stars in Udinski and Scheelhaase, and are eager to talk to them in person. <\/p>\n
Udinski, who turned 30 on Jan. 12, would be the youngest NFL head coach ever hired, beating out the Rams\u2019 Sean McVay, who was 30 years and 353 days when hired in 2017. Udinski, who\u2019s wise beyond his years and has a commanding presence, has a head coach interview scheduled with the Bills on Sunday, two days after he spends the day here with the Browns.<\/p>\n
He might need some time to grow into the job, but if paired with an experienced offensive coordinator and if Schwartz remains in place, it\u2019s a combination that could work well.<\/p>\n
The same goes for Scheelhaase, who\u2019s been described by some as the next McVay. He also brings four years\u2019 experience as a college quarterback, having started four seasons at Illinois.<\/p>\n
The Browns will seriously consider hiring one of the young guys and surrounding them with the right advisors and talent. But they also still like their experienced veterans. <\/p>\n
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial<\/a> of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio — And then there were four. The Browns and Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter mutually agreed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,95552,6,31185],"class_list":{"0":"post-698689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-kg1_2867-nef","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nflraw25"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115944028331001017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698689","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=698689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}