‘It’s every D-lineman’s dream to play in a system like this’: What they say about Jim Schwartz

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Browns are bringing a familiar face back to Cleveland with the hiring of Jim Schwartz as defensive coordinator. Schwartz was a scout for the Browns under Bill Belichick from 1993 to 1995.

But he brings extensive defensive coordinator experience with 14 seasons running defenses, including eight in Tennessee and five in Philadelphia. One of those seasons in Philadelphia, Schwartz’s defense helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl.

Schwartz came to the Eagles in 2016 along with Doug Pederson and had some work to do rebuilding the Philadelphia defense. In one season, he helped the Eagles improve from being No. 28 in scoring defense to No. 12. The Eagles were fourth in that category one year later as they won the Super Bowl.

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“Now he’s in Philadelphia, coordinating the NFL’s fourth-stingiest defense. The degree to which he transformed the Eagles D cannot be overstated. It was a wrecked, dead husk just a few years ago — near the bottom of every statistical category. In less than two years, he has made the Eagles defense into one of the best, highlighted by a run defense that allowed fewer than 80 yards on the ground per game, best in the league,” Mike Freeman wrote for Bleacher Report in 2018 prior to Super Bowl LII. “When I watch that defense, I see Schwartz all over it. It’s not the fastest, but it’s more than fast enough. It’s smart and studious. It doesn’t make a ton of mistakes and makes opposing offenses pay if they do.”

One of the key elements of Schwartz’s defense is the Wide 9 scheme, which puts defensive ends farther outside of the offensive tackles. It’s a scheme that lends itself to an aggressive pass rush because of the pressure it puts on opposing tackles.

“In a Wide 9, you’re putting a superior athlete against a bigger, slower guy with the offensive tackle,” former defensive lineman Andre Fluellen told MLive.com in 2011 when he played for the Lions under Schwartz. “Even when he has to come out and block a Wide 9, he still has space to move, rather than if I’m tight in there.

“Offensive linemen, they’re really good inside a small (area). They don’t have to move that much and they can use their weight and leverage on you. When you’re in a wider 9, they have to come get you, and that really puts them on an island, where if you come inside, they’ll have their weight overextended. So that’s kind of the theory of the Wide 9 against the pass and the run. It puts the offensive lineman in bad position.”

The scheme also has plenty of appeal among players. When he was interviewed after signing with the Eagles in 2020, which was Schwartz’s last season in Philadelphia, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave told reporters part of the appeal was playing in Schwartz’s system.

“It’s just more of get upfield and it’s made for defensive linemen, I think,” Hargrave said. “It’s a lot more exciting. It’s every D-lineman’s dream to play in a system like this.”

For fans wondering if the addition of Schwartz means more blitzing, that doesn’t seem very likely, according to what Michael Kist of BleedingGreenNation.com wrote in 2019. Schwartz’s scheme is about getting pressure with a talented front, and in 2018, the Eagles were more successful on third down when not blitzing compared to when they did blitz.

After leaving Philadelphia following the 2020 season, Schwartz returned to Tennessee as a senior defensive assistant, where he has been the past two seasons. One of the things Schwartz’s defenses did well in Philadelphia was get off the field, as they were among the best in third-down defense.

“On the back end of the defense Schwartz, like (Titans head coach Mike) Vrabel, prefers to play man coverage at an above-average rate relative to his peers around the league. His third-and-long ‘sticks’ coverage drew the ire of Eagles fans at times, but was statistically quite successful at stopping conversions,” Mike Herndon of Broadway Sports Media wrote in 2021.

Schwartz worked alongside defensive coordinator Shane Bowen the last two seasons in Tennessee. While the Titans have been better at getting to the quarterback, they’ve also modernized their coverage schemes from what Schwartz did in his time in Philadelphia, as The Ringer’s Ben Solak wrote in November 2022. How much is on Schwartz and how much is on Bowen is unclear.

“Despite the clear Schwartzian influence along the Titans’ defensive line, the team’s strategies for pass coverage behind Schwartz’s fronts are updated with more modern sensibilities. As the league has moved to having two-deep safeties, so has the Titans defense. Compare their called coverages in the past two seasons with the coverages called by Schwartz when he coordinated the Eagles defense in 2019 and 2020. The Titans have quadrupled the rate of quarters coverage,” Solak wrote.

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