Jim Schwartz hire paid off for Browns defense, despite disappointing playoff performance

BEREA — The Browns on Wednesday made several changes to their offensive staff. That included a change at the coordinator position, where Alex Van Pelt no longer will be the offensive coordinator.

The hope for the Browns is that they can catch lightning in a bottle twice. Specifically, to a move they made a year to the day earlier, when they hired Jim Schwartz to be their defensive coordinator.

Schwartz was hired on Jan. 17, 2023, exactly nine days after coach Kevin Stefanski fired Joe Woods from the same position. The goal was simple: To significantly improve an underachieving defense.

A year later, that was, arguably save the disappointment in the AFC wild card loss to the Houston Texans, accomplished.

"I think at the end of the day there's a lot of things that contribute to a team's success," linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah said a day after that loss in Houston. "Coach Schwartz, obviously on the defensive side, is a huge part of that. And I think for him we have things that are already understood, but for him, even those things that are understood, he makes relevant.

"… So at the end of the day, I think Coach Schwartz is an amazing leader and he's able to formulate his messages in a way that gets people going. And whether that’s in a practice, in a walkthrough or in a game, I'm really grateful for that transpiring amongst our defense and within myself."

The change for the Browns defense started on first Sunday of the regular season. While the calf injury to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, as well as the rain, certainly had a hand things, it was that opening-day performance that set the tone for a different kind of defense in Cleveland than had been the norm.

The historic numbers the Browns posted early in the season never seemed like they could be sustainable. However, even when the defense did come back toward the pack a bit as the season went along — part of it due to a litany of second-half injuries, part just regression to the mean — it remained the most relatively consistent side of the ball.

That was the kind of impact Stefanski was looking for when Schwartz was hired.

"I think I don’t want to lose sight of how good we were on defense this season, historic," Stefanski said earlier in the week, "and I think Coach Schwartz and the defensive staff did an outstanding job implementing the system in Year One. Some really good moments for us and some young players that we’re excited about."

The Browns finished the season ranked first in the league in both total yards allowed and passing yards allowed, as well first downs per game and third-down efficiency. They finished sixth in the league in sacks, despite only getting one sack from All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett over the final seven weeks of the regular season.

There will, rightfully, be discussions about some of the defensive flaws that emerged. At the top of the list will be questions about why the Browns were so good at home and, at times such as in Week 7 at Indianapolis and in the playoffs loss at Houston, so porous on the road.

There will also be personnel questions to be answered. They have a number of key defensive pieces — including defensive end Za'Darius Smith, essentially their entire defensive tackle rotation outside of Dalvin Tomlinson and linebackers Sione Takitaki and Anthony Walker Jr. — among the two dozen or so impending free agents.

"One, the next step is the best step, right?" Owusu-Koramoah said. "The next step concerns fixing those mistakes, right? Fixing the things that we did wrong. At the end of the day, that's why we’re a team. I think a team has a love for every individual that's within that team. And to correct those mistakes, we have to take an audit, whether it's some of the man things we did wrong, some of the zone things we did wrong, some of the preparation things we may have did wrong."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jim Schwartz hire paid off for Browns defense, despite playoff letdown