Ozzie Newsome, Marvin Lewis helped jump-start Jim Schwartz’s career

On Jan 18, 2023

Ozzie Newsome worked with Jim Schwartz under Bill Belichick with the Browns from 1993-95, then convinced defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis to hire Schwartz as a defensive quality control coach when the franchise moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens in 1996.

Jim Schwartz is finally going to get a chance to be an on-field coach for the Browns. The last time he was in Cleveland, he did a lot of things for the Browns, but coaching wasn’t one of them.

“Well, I mean, we were doing a lot of things,” Browns Hall of Fame tight end and former Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome recalled by phone to the Beacon Journal Tuesday. “I don’t think you could just sit there and say, ‘This is what he did.’ We would, we all did what Bill (Belichick) asked us to do, bill and Mike (Lombardi) asked us to do.”

The 56-year-old Schwartz will be the Browns’ defensive coordinator for the 2023 season, replacing Joe Woods. The then-26-year-old Schwartz was just another of Belichick’s famed “slappies” when he got his start with the original franchise for the 1993 season.

Jim Schwartz to be hired by Browns:Jim Schwartz to replace Joe Woods Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator

Officially, Schwartz’s title was pro scout. In reality, like so many of the other up-and-comers who Belichick brought into the organization promising little pay and long hours, his responsibilities were pretty much anything that could come to mind, some of it even football related.

Newsome, whose title in 1993 was assistant to the head coach/offense/pro personnel before being promoted to Director of Player Personnel in 1994, said that Schwartz’s strengths fit his somewhat undefined role perfectly.

“Well, he could multitask,” Newsome said. “He also was very, very good from a detail standpoint.”

Schwartz held down a scouting role with the Browns right up until the day the franchise moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season. When the move happened, that may have signaled the end of Schwartz’s NFL dreams, at least with the Browns-turned-Ravens.

However, there was someone on the Ravens’ coaching staff who opened the door for Schwartz to not only keep his goal of working in the NFL alive, but working in an on-field role in the league.

“It was Marvin Lewis,” said Newsome, who was the Ravens’ player personnel director from 1996-2001 before being promoted to general manager in 2002. “When we came over from Cleveland we had had only so many spots in the scouting staff, and (Baltimore head coach) Ted (Marchibroda) had hired Marvin to be the defensive coordinator. And so I asked Marvin would he interview Jim for a quality control position that he had available. He did. He fell in love with him, and that’s what started him into coaching.”

The Ravens hired Schwartz to be a defensive quality control coach under Lewis. At the time, Lewis had no connection with the unproven assistant, having worked with the Browns’ archrivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers through the 1995 season.

However, for Lewis, the word of Newsome was as good as any to convince him to take a chance on Schwartz.

“When I took the job, Ozzie said, ‘Hey, we hired a young guy here this last year,'” Lewis told the Beacon Journal Tuesday from Arizona, where he’s special advisor in the Arizona State University football program. “‘He hasn’t got to do much, but he’s a smart guy. He is hardworking and I think he’s worthwhile you speaking with and trying to see if we can keep him around. And he was so right.”