BEREA, Ohio — Browns owner Jimmy Haslam made his feelings clear about defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz the day he fired Kevin Stefanski.
“Absolutely,” he said when asked if he wanted Schwartz to remain in the organization. “Great coach.”
Tuesday, as the Browns introduced their new head coach, Todd Monken, Haslam punted on any real Schwartz discussion.
“I think Todd made it clear. (GM) Andrew (Berry)’s made it clear. I think I made it clear back on January 5th, we think the world of Coach Schwartz,” Haslam said. “I think Jim and Jim’s future are the subject for another day.”
Whenever that day comes, the Browns would be smart to figure out the most palatable way to let Schwartz leave.
Monken mostly shooed aside questions about Schwartz, but he made it clear that his plan is to keep the Browns’ defensive players in the system they’re in. Those players are part of the reason he took the job.
“They’re a big reason why I took this job, the defensive players,” Monken said. “I didn’t take this job because of Jim Schwartz. I have a lot of respect for Jim Schwartz as I would hope he has for me.”
If you’re reading between the lines, it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that Schwartz, who reportedly left the building the day the Browns chose Monken, isn’t walking back through the door anytime soon.
“When I was preparing (to play) the Cleveland Browns, I wasn’t trying to chip Jim Schwartz, I was chipping Myles Garrett. And when I was sliding a protection to the outside backers or Grant Delpit that were blitzing off the edge, I was sliding the protection of the players. And when I was worried about throwing to the right against Denzel Ward or Tyson Campbell to the left, that’s who I was worried about throwing at.”
Or, put simply, Schwartz or no Schwartz, there’s still plenty of talent on that side of the ball for anyone to work with.
So the question becomes, if Schwartz is unhappy and Monken needs to earn buy-in from players on both sides of the ball, who exactly benefits from Schwartz still being in the building?
The answer isn’t the head coach you just hired and gave a five-year contract to.
Because Monken is a veteran coach and not one of the younger, inexperienced candidates the Browns were considering, he’s more equipped to smooth tensions and put a happy face on things. But why should he be asked to do that as part of his first head coaching job that he’s been waiting his whole career to land?
This isn’t about what happens in the next few weeks or even months, when a big check and maybe a fancier title could appease Schwartz into sticking around.
This is about what happens if a young offense struggles early in the season — especially at quarterback, where the Browns have no clear answer. How will veteran defensive players respond to a new coach hired to fix the offense? What will Myles Garrett, who endorsed Schwartz, say when things aren’t clicking?
Some of the bitterness from defensive players will linger even if Schwartz is gone, but imagine the pressure on Monken if Schwartz is in the building, talking to the media every Thursday and once again leading a dominant defense.
Winning fixes everything, but even then there’s real risk: if the Browns win primarily because of Schwartz’s dominant defense, does that undermine Monken’s credibility as a new head coach?
The Browns are trying to have their cake and eat it too. When they decided to fire Stefanski, they ran the risk of losing coaches they liked. When they made the decision to pass on Schwartz, they ran the risk of losing the person in the building it seemed they least wanted to lose.
They could have simply defaulted to Schwartz to guarantee keeping him and, to their credit, didn’t take the path of least resistance.
It will be up to Monken to either prove them right or wrong for that decision. The Browns owe it to Monken and themselves to give him the best chance to succeed. That includes creating an environment in the building conducive to him making this team his own.
This has nothing to do with Schwartz’s ability as a defensive coordinator. We’ve seen since he arrived how good he is at that job. Losing Schwartz would not be a good thing on paper.
But there’s a human element to all of this, and forcing a partnership between Monken and the defensive coordinator, who is popular with half of the locker room and was passed over for the job, is only asking for a potentially explosive situation down the road.
Almost a month ago, it made sense for Haslam to say they absolutely wanted to keep Schwartz.
Now that the search is over and the new coach is in place, it makes more sense to let him go.
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