{"id":756243,"date":"2026-02-16T15:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756243\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:55:24","slug":"browns-down-to-three-candidates-for-vacant-defensive-coordinator-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756243\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns down to three candidates for vacant defensive coordinator job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cleveland-browns\/329\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cleveland Browns;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Cleveland Browns<\/a> search for their new defensive coordinator, they may be wrapping up their process.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/browns\/2026\/02\/jason-tarver-cory-undlin-and-mike-rutenberg-are-the-3-finalists-for-browns-defensive-coordinator.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:According to Cleveland dot com&#039;s Mary Kay Cabot;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">According to Cleveland dot com&#8217;s Mary Kay Cabot<\/a>, the Browns are down to three finalists. These candidates will now interview in person this week as new head coach Todd Monken looks to name his defensive coordinator. The three reported finalists are <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/browns-request-interview-texans-assistant-002106540.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cory Undlin;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cory Undlin<\/a>, who currently serves as the passing game specialist with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/houston-texans\/325\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Houston Texans;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Houston Texans<\/a>; Mike Rutenberg, who holds the same post with the Atlanta Falcons; and current Browns&#8217; linebackers coach Jason Tarver.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This comes after former defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz submitted his letter of resignation after he did not receive the head coaching job. The list of finalists is trimmed down from a total of seven initial candidates, including Browns&#8217; current safeties coach Jeff Anderson as well.<\/p>\n<p>Undlin and Tarver both have previous defensive coordinator experience. Undlin was the defensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions in 2020, while Tarver coordinated the then-Oakland <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/las-vegas-raiders\/341\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Raiders;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Raiders<\/a> under Jack Del Rio. Undlin has also spent time with the Browns as their defensive backs coach back in 2008. While Rutenberg has never coordinated his own defense, he has spent plenty of time underneath of revered defensive minds of Robert Saleh (new head coach of the Tennessee Titans) and <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/browns-set-interview-jeff-ulbrich-230133968.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Jeff Ulbrich;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeff Ulbrich<\/a> (Atlanta Falcons&#8217; defensive coordinator).<\/p>\n<p>A decision seems to be coming rather soon.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/brownswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/browns\/2026\/02\/16\/browns-three-candidates-coordinator-job\/88699964007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Browns down to three candidates for vacant defensive coordinator job;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Browns down to three candidates for vacant defensive coordinator job<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Cleveland Browns search for their new defensive coordinator, they may be wrapping up their process. According&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[254,86,85,54,2337,106163,2792,7,253,34397,4193,8934,7646,6,525,394,582],"class_list":{"0":"post-756243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-browns","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-browns","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-cory-undlin","14":"tag-defensive-coordinator","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-houston-texans","17":"tag-jason-tarver","18":"tag-linebackers-coach","19":"tag-mary-kay-cabot","20":"tag-mike-rutenberg","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-raiders","23":"tag-tennessee-titans","24":"tag-the-browns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116081127584999593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756243","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=756243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}