{"id":734485,"date":"2026-02-06T23:45:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734485\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:45:45","slug":"what-to-think-of-jim-schwartz-leaving-the-cleveland-browns-terry-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734485\/","title":{"rendered":"What to think of Jim Schwartz leaving the Cleveland Browns? \u2013 Terry Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 I\u2019m not happy about Jim Schwartz leaving as the Browns defensive coordinator.<\/a><\/p>\n

But I\u2019m also happy he resigned.<\/p>\n

How is that for a contradiction?<\/p>\n

Losing Schwartz is a big deal to the Browns. He is one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. Under his watch, Myles Garrett won the NFL\u2019s Defensive Player of the Year Award. Linebacker Carson Schwesinger was named the Defensive Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

The Browns defense had a very good year. It ranked No. 3 in allowing the fewest passing yards, and No. 4 in fewest total yards. It was No. 13 in points allowed.<\/p>\n

They had a few late-game blowups, but overall this was an A-minus defense.<\/p>\n

It would have been great if Schwartz could have agreed to stay on the job with new head coach Todd Monken. <\/p>\n

Of course, that\u2019s a little like saying, \u201cIt would be great if I could grow hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

That ain\u2019t gonna happen, just as it became obvious that Schwartz was not going to play nice after he lost out to Monken for the head coaching position.<\/p>\n

\"ClevelandNew Browns coach Todd Monken seemed to sense Jim Schwartz wanted to leave. John Kuntz, cleveland.comThe real world <\/p>\n

At the age of 59, Schwartz probably sensed this was his last chance to become a head coach. The only other team that interviewed him was Baltimore, where he was eliminated in the first round.<\/p>\n

Part of Schwartz likely still can\u2019t believe the Browns selected Monken (age 60) over him. <\/p>\n

He believed he had earned the job with his good work in three years. I tended to agree and supported his candidacy. <\/p>\n

That said, I like Monken. He is an elite offensive coordinator. I began following his career after he left the Browns after the 2019 season. He did great work at Georgia (two national titles) and with the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to fault the Browns for importing Monken to fix what is the NFL\u2019s worst offense in the last two seasons in several categories. <\/p>\n

Ideally, Schwartz would have been the head coach and Monken the offensive coordinator. But Monken was going to follow John Harbaugh to the New York Giants if he didn\u2019t land a head coaching job. Harbaugh kept his offensive coordinator job open until Monken was hired by Cleveland. <\/p>\n

\"ClevelandWe’ll see if Jim Schwartz lands with another team. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com<\/p>\n

What about Schwartz? <\/p>\n

The only way Schwartz could have returned to the Browns was if he put his full heart into the job. He was hurt deeply when he lost out to Monken. <\/p>\n

The two men met early in the week. I sense it didn\u2019t go well when Monken said this at his Tuesday press conference: \u201cI didn\u2019t take this job because of Jim Schwartz.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also praised Schwartz as a defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n

But there was a sense it wasn\u2019t going to work. If there was any indication the two men would end up as coaching rivals in the same building \u2013 that can\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

The Browns have had enough of what owner Jimmy Haslam called \u201cinternal discord\u201d when coach Hue Jackson was fired in the middle of the 2018 season. <\/p>\n

When GM Andrew Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski were hired in 2020, the in-fighting stopped. Even with Stefanski being fired, there has been no after-the-fact onslaught of rumors and finger-pointing. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the happy part: Schwartz wasn\u2019t going to fake it. He is one of the NFL\u2019s highest-paid defensive coordinators. He had two years left on his contract. He could have come back and grumbled, going through the motions.<\/p>\n

But Schwartz is not a phony. He knew he was done in Cleveland and decided to leave. He still has those two years left on his Browns contract. He would be a good hire for a team needing a defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if the Browns let him leave for another team, which I would. Or perhaps, they could arrange a small trade for a team wanting him, getting a low-round draft choice.<\/p>\n

Either way, it\u2019s best for Monken, Schwartz and the Browns that it ends this way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 I\u2019m not happy about Jim Schwartz leaving as the Browns defensive coordinator. But I\u2019m also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,103764,94864,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-734485","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-cleveland-browns-head-coach-todd-monken","12":"tag-cleveland-browns-2025-2026","13":"tag-clevelandbrowns","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116026355213340629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734485","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=734485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}