BEREA — Quincy Williams hadn’t been around Mike Rutenberg in a while. The new Browns linebacker last was together with the new Browns defensive coordinator when they were together with the New York Jets in 2024.
The two reunited in their new home in March. Two months later, now that they’re back on the field in the final phase of the offseason, it’s just like old times for Williams.
“The biggest thing is the energy, man,” Williams said after the Browns concluded an OTA May 20. “It feels good out there, especially coming into a defense where you feel comfortable at. Then also the coaches coaching the same thing and you’re just comfortable. So just playing fast mindset and then now you’re just getting your teammates on the same page.”
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Defensive tackle Mason Graham was one of the many holdovers from the Browns’ top-five defense from 2025. That defense, though, was under the watch of Jim Schwartz, who resigned in February after being passed over for the head-coaching position by Todd Monken.
Graham’s exposure to Rutenberg has been limited to the month-and-a-half the Browns have gone through the offseason program. However, the former top-five draft pick has come away with a similar take as Williams on his new defensive coordinator.
“I feel like he’s a player’s coach,” Graham said after Wednesday’s OTA. “He just wants to be around the guys. He wants us to talk to him like he’s another one of us on the field. I really like his energy. He brings a lot of juice to defense and I feel like that’s a good thing for us.”
The drama surrounding the transition from Schwartz, who guided the Browns to a pair of top-five defenses in his three seasons in the position, to Rutenberg was one of the most prominent over the first couple of months of the offseason. There was a high level of consternation amongst many that moving on from the popular coordinator would lead to a locker-room revolt of sorts on the defensive side of the ball.
That drama died down thanks to a couple of things, the first being the decision to essentially retain the rest of the defensive staff from last season. The second was Rutenberg being able to get in and establish his system, which was essentially no different than what Schwartz ran.
Rutenberg’s past includes stops under both Gus Bradley and Robert Saleh, whose defensive philosophies are at the absolute worst cousins to what Schwartz ran. Both even-front looks start from the philosophy of letting the defensive linemen get after the quarterback.
“I mean, just little tweaks here and there,” Graham said. “Every coordinator wants to put a little twist on their defense, but Rudy wanted to keep it mostly the same for the front. So we’re kind of just sticking with our plan and attacking, getting penetration, disrupting.”
Graham’s arguably been the biggest name to be present the two open offseason workouts the Browns have held in the last two months: April’s voluntary minicamp day and Wednesday’s OTA workout. Notably absent has been two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward, safety Grant Delpit and veteran defensive tackle Maliek Collins, who formed a dangerous interior tandem with Graham a year ago before a season-ending quad injury in Week 13 against the San Francisco 49ers.
The defense, even without those four big names, made more than their share of plays during the open OTA, which was the Browns’ second of 10 total. They created multiple turnovers and frustrated multiple quarterbacks, chasing after the ball as if it was, in Williams’ words, “oxygen.”
That’s all without arguably four of the top six or seven defensive players on the team. Williams isn’t allowing himself to think beyond the moment at the potential of the fully formed defense, just what the defense needs to do to familiarize themselves with the new scheme so that it can take off when it’s fully formed.
“That’s the craziest thing about OTAs just because you don’t have everybody, but the biggest thing is also a newer scheme too though,” Williams said. “So you’re playing with people who are starting to get their confidence and then you’re also playing with a couple of people that already have their confidence. So you don’t really know, like I said, we’re not trying to win tomorrow, but we’re coming with the mindset that if we were to play tomorrow, we handing our a** whoopings because we’re all out of lollipops.”
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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: Browns defenders new and old embracing new DC Mike Rutenberg’s energy
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
