Robaire Smith thinks Jim Schwartz with Myles Garrett could be ‘scary’
The thought was enough to make Robaire Smith giggle.
Myles Garrett, multi-time All-Pro, teaming up with Jim Schwartz, Super Bowl champion defensive coordinator. That reality is coming to the Browns now that they’re hiring Schwartz, who has spent the last two seasons as a senior defensive assistant with the Tennessee Titans, to be their new defensive coordinator.
Smith was asked how much Garrett could thrive working in Schwartz’s defensive scheme. The former Browns, Titans and Houston Texans defensive lineman took exception to the choice of verb used to describe the potential.
“You said ‘could he,’ or ‘will he,'” Smith said in a phone interview with the Beacon Journal. “Because he’s going to thrive, man. I don’t, with that guy, man, shoot, I don’t see too much where he can’t. But this right here, he definitely going to love this a little more. I’m assuming they’re probably going to stay in the 4-3 of some sort. With (Garrett) out there, man, I don’t think no one’s going to be able to block him away the way Jim lets him go. You know what I mean? So I think with the scheme, if Jim running his scheme, woo, I dunno, it could get scary man, get very scary.”
Browns to hire Jim Schwartz:Tennessee Titans senior defensive assistant Jim Schwartz to be the new Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator
Smith would know very well what Schwartz can do with a dominant defensive end. He came into the league as a sixth-round pick of the Titans in 2000, and in the following season, Schwartz was elevated from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator.
In Schwartz’s first season as defensive coordinator, Jevon Kearse registered 10 sacks. His final two seasons as the Titans’ defensive coordinator, in 2007-08, defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth had 14.5 combined sacks.
Now, as Schwartz heads to his fourth team to be a defensive coordinator, he gets to work with another freakish defensive lineman. Smith, for one, can’t wait to see what it looks like with Garrett, who is coming off back-to-back seasons with a franchise single-season record 16 sacks.
“You got to think back to those Jevon Kearse days and those guys the way was able to get off that ball and cause havoc, man,” Smith said. “And (Garrett’s), oh man, almost twice as big as with the same type of speed. So it could get scary. Very scary.”
Smith and Schwartz were together from 2000-03, before Smith went to the Houston Texans for two seasons. He was reunited in Tennessee with Schwartz for one more season, in 2006, before he once again left, this time to play for the Browns.
Smith played 38 games over four seasons from 2007-10 for the Browns before retiring. During that time, he played for another coach who got his break as a Bill Belichick gopher in the early-to-mid 1990s, Eric Mangini.
While Smith last played for Schwartz in 2006, his appreciation for his former defensive coordinator remains high. He recorded 12 sacks and 19 tackles for loss in his five seasons with the Titans, a lot of those stats he credits to how Schwartz let him play.
“Well I think it is, he lets you, first of all, he lets you be a player, you know what I mean?,” Smith said. “So he lets you be yourself, which is more times, nine times out of 10, if you let a defensive lineman do that, he’s going to show you that athleticism and power. To that point, he don’t try to change no one. Instead, he tries to put them in the best position where their skill set and their true talent can shine.”
Tennessee was Schwartz’s first stop as a defensive coordinator. He would also, after a five-year stint as the Detroit Lions’ head coach, spend 2014 as the Buffalo Bills’ defensive coordinator before a run from 2016-20 in the same position with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Schwartz turned around the Eagles’ defense within his first two seasons, elevating it from the 30s to fourth overall in the league in 2017. That season, one in which Philadelphia won the Super Bowl, the defense was led by a nasty line which included Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Chris Long, Vinny Curry, Fletcher Cox and Timmy Jernigan.