Jim Schwartz making an early impact on Browns’ offseason decisions

On Mar 2, 2023

Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz watches during the second half of an NFL preseason football game against the Cleveland Browns, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

INDIANAPOLIS — Kevin Stefanski’s office is the one that matters the most amongst all the coaches within the Browns’ facility. A lot, though, can be made by whose offices sit closest to the head coach’s.

Stefanski made it a point from the time he was first hired that offensive line coach Bill Callahan’s office was located right next to his own. A similar decision was made in January when he hired Jim Schwartz to be his new defensive coordinator.

“I mean, I’m very, very fortunate to have Jim, a former head coach to one side of my office,” Stefanski said during the NFL Scouting Combine. “(Offensive line coach) Bill Callahan, a former head coach on the other side, out the other door. So I have a lot of very veteran guys that I can lean on.”

Schwartz was hired by the Browns on Jan. 17, a little more than a week after they fired former defensive coordinator Joe Woods in the hours after their 7-10 season ended. The long-time NFL defensive coach had spent the previous two years in a senior defensive assistant’s role with the Tennessee Titans, as much advisor as coach.

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In returning to where his NFL career began as a Bill Belichick “slappy” in 1993, Schwartz has been both advisor and coach in his short time back. Everyone in the building, all the way up to general manager Andrew Berry, has made it a point to lean on the expertise of the coach who has built elite defenses in Tennessee, Buffalo and Philadelphia, winning a Super Bowl at the latter in 2017.

“We’ve always been a firm believer as a front office in partnering with our coaching staff, and that has always been the case with Kevin,” Berry said this week. “That will always be the case with our coordinators, because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we are able to match personnel strengths, skill sets to the offense, defensive or kicking game philosophy. That’ll be no different than with Jim. It certainly does help that, having worked with Jim before and having some level of familiarity, have a pretty good sense of what he wants in different parts of the defense, but that that’ll be always be the case with our coaching staff.”