Jim Schwartz hadn’t really been heard from since he was passed over for the Browns’ head coaching job. He finally ended that silence on June 2.
Schwartz appeared on “The Ryan Ripken Show” and explained why he ultimately chose to resign Feb. 5 as defensive coordinator after Todd Monken was hired to replace Kevin Stefanski. Despite being under contract for the 2026 season with the Browns, he elected to resign and not coach this season anywhere.
“That was a decision they made,” Schwartz told Ripken. “They wanted to go with an offensive guy. They chose Todd. I’m fine with that. They can make decisions that they want to make. But they can’t expect me to stay on board for that. Anybody that’s in any business, if you get passed over for a promotion when you’ve done a really, really good job in your job and you think you were in line for that promotion, it’s time to go. Todd deserved his own guy. A forced marriage isn’t going to work in the NFL.
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“… Thirty-three years in the NFL, I’ve never been around that before. That all went into the decision. I wasn’t upset about it. I was disappointed about it. I wasn’t upset about it, I wasn’t mad about it. But it’s just my experience told me that wasn’t going to be a situation that was going to work.”
Schwartz, who had previously been a head coach with the Detroit Lions from 2009-13, was one of three finalists for the job. The other finalist, along with Monken, was Los Angeles Rams then-pass game coordinator/current offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase.
Monken said at his introductory press conference two days before Schwartz resigned that he welcomed him staying on and definitely intended on keeping the defensive scheme the same. However, he also was blunt about the situation.
“I didn’t take this job because of Jim Schwartz,” Monken said Feb. 3. “I have a lot of respect for Jim Schwartz, as I would hope he has for me. But I’d tell you, because of the players that are here, the ownership, Andrew Berry and the ability to build this roster from the ground up on the offensive side.
“And I said this to the other guys, I didn’t think I’d say it, but I’m going to say it. When I was preparing for 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.”
Delpit, Ward and Garrett all were among the defensive players who expressed support for Schwartz replacing Stefanski after he was fired. Those three were also among the players who saw some of their best seasons during the three years that he was the defensive coordinator.
Monken hired Atlanta Falcons pass game coordinator Mike Rutenberg to be Schwartz’s replacement. Rutenberg runs a similar scheme to Schwartz, all of which traces back to the aggressive even-front scheme created by Jim Washburn and Gregg Williams with the Tennessee Titans in the late 1990s.
The rest of Monken’s defensive staff is almost exclusively holdovers from the 2025 staff under Schwartz.
“Having command of the players and having command of the locker room, all of those things were extremely important,” Schwartz said. “I didn’t feel like I could do my job after getting passed over for the head coaching job. It’s sort of just put me in a tough position. ‘Hey, we want you to listen to this guy, but we didn’t want to make him the head coach. So, I made the decision to resign and I have to sit out this year as a result.
“… And it wouldn’t have been good for me and it wouldn’t have been good for Todd, so it was best for him to get his own guy in there and to move forward with him as opposed to just having an arranged marriage and having me there maybe having some players more loyal to me than him. It can just be a bad situation.”
Delpit earned a contract extension in 2023, Schwartz’s first year, and eventually was a Pro Bowl alternate as a special teams player in 2025. Ward earned Pro Bowl berths all three seasons.
Garrett, who was traded to the Rams June 1 for Jared Verse and three draft picks, blossomed into arguably the most feared defender in the NFL. He won both of his NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards under Schwartz, as well as All-Pro first-team honors all three seasons.
Garrett’s NFL-record 23 sacks in 2025 capped that stretch. He recorded 51 sacks in that span and an NFL-leading 72 tackles for loss, including 33 in 2025.
“They passed over me with all the success that we had and the ability to develop players,” Schwartz said. “Our best players had their best years. All those different things.”
The Browns over the three seasons Schwartz was running the defense to rank first in total yards per game (298.6), opponents first downs allowed per game (16.5), third-down percentage (33.8%), fourth-down percentage (41.2%), total passing yards per game (181.5), first downs per pass attempt (30.9%) and most team tackles for a loss (342). They also rank third in team sacks with 143 and are tied for second with eight defensive touchdowns.
Schwartz was the 2023 NFL Assistant Coach of the Year. That season, when the Browns went 11-6 and qualified for the AFC playoffs, the defense led the NFL in several categories, including total defense (270.2 yards per game, the fewest since the 2014 Seattle Seahawks), passing defense (164.7 yards per game), third-down percentage (67 of 230 for 29.1%) and first downs allowed (253).
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With two major award winners in Garrett and NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger, along with another Pro Bowl season out of Ward, the Browns returned to a top-five ranking in 2025 after a dip to the middle in 2024. Cleveland allowed the fourth-fewest total yards per game (283.6) and third-fewest passing yards per game (167.2), while ranking third with 53 sacks.
“I think anybody who’s been in any business when you’ve done a good job, when you mention those numbers, we weren’t one of the best defenses in three years, we were the best defense in three years,” Schwartz said. “The decision they made, that’s their decision. But to expect me to stay and me to be on board for that, that’s just a tough situation.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ‘A forced marriage isn’t going to work,’ Jim Schwartz tells Ryan Ripken
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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