Robaire Smith on Jim Schwartz-Myles Garrett combo with Browns: ‘It could get scary, man’

Cleveland Browns defensive end Robaire Smith (98) and cornerback Eric Wright (24) are seen on the field during the team’s NFL football minicamp in Berea, Ohio on Friday, June 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

The thought was enough to make Robaire Smith giggle.

Myles Garrett, multi-time All-Pro, teaming up with Jim Schwartz, Super Bowl champion defensive coordinator. That reality is coming to the Browns now that they’re hiring Schwartz, who has spent the last two seasons as a senior defensive assistant with the Tennessee Titans, to be their new defensive coordinator.

Smith was asked how much Garrett could thrive working in Schwartz’s defensive scheme. The former Browns, Titans and Houston Texans defensive lineman took exception to the choice of verb used to describe the potential.

“You said ‘could he,’ or ‘will he,'” Smith said in a phone interview with the Beacon Journal. “Because he’s going to thrive, man. I don’t, with that guy, man, shoot, I don’t see too much where he can’t. But this right here, he definitely going to love this a little more. I’m assuming they’re probably going to stay in the 4-3 of some sort. With (Garrett) out there, man, I don’t think no one’s going to be able to block him away the way Jim lets him go. You know what I mean? So I think with the scheme, if Jim running his scheme, woo, I dunno, it could get scary man, get very scary.”

Browns to hire Jim Schwartz:Tennessee Titans senior defensive assistant Jim Schwartz to be the new Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator

Smith would know very well what Schwartz can do with a dominant defensive end. He came into the league as a sixth-round pick of the Titans in 2000, and in the following season, Schwartz was elevated from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator.

In Schwartz’s first season as defensive coordinator, Jevon Kearse registered 10 sacks. His final two seasons as the Titans’ defensive coordinator, in 2007-08, defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth had 14.5 combined sacks.

FILE – Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers talks with Tennessee Titans senior advisor Jim Schwartz before an NFL football game Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, in Green Bay, Wis. Schwartz is interviewing Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, with Cleveland for their defensive coordinator vacancy created when coach Kevin Stefanski fired Joe Woods following a season of defensive collapses by the Browns. The 56-year-old Schwartz has been a senior advisor with the Tennessee Titans for the past two seasons. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

Now, as Schwartz heads to his fourth team to be a defensive coordinator, he gets to work with another freakish defensive lineman. Smith, for one, can’t wait to see what it looks like with Garrett, who is coming off back-to-back seasons with a franchise single-season record 16 sacks.

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“You got to think back to those Jevon Kearse days and those guys the way was able to get off that ball and cause havoc, man,” Smith said. “And (Garrett’s), oh man, almost twice as big as with the same type of speed. So it could get scary. Very scary.”

Smith and Schwartz were together from 2000-03, before Smith went to the Houston Texans for two seasons. He was reunited in Tennessee with Schwartz for one more season, in 2006, before he once again left, this time to play for the Browns.

Smith played 38 games over four seasons from 2007-10 for the Browns before retiring. During that time, he played for another coach who got his break as a Bill Belichick gopher in the early-to-mid 1990s, Eric Mangini.

While Smith last played for Schwartz in 2006, his appreciation for his former defensive coordinator remains high. He recorded 12 sacks and 19 tackles for loss in his five seasons with the Titans, a lot of those stats he credits to how Schwartz let him play.

“Well I think it is, he lets you, first of all, he lets you be a player, you know what I mean?,” Smith said. “So he lets you be yourself, which is more times, nine times out of 10, if you let a defensive lineman do that, he’s going to show you that athleticism and power. To that point, he don’t try to change no one. Instead, he tries to put them in the best position where their skill set and their true talent can shine.”

Tennessee was Schwartz’s first stop as a defensive coordinator. He would also, after a five-year stint as the Detroit Lions’ head coach, spend 2014 as the Buffalo Bills’ defensive coordinator before a run from 2016-20 in the same position with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Schwartz turned around the Eagles’ defense within his first two seasons, elevating it from the 30s to fourth overall in the league in 2017. That season, one in which Philadelphia won the Super Bowl, the defense was led by a nasty line which included Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Chris Long, Vinny Curry, Fletcher Cox and Timmy Jernigan.

Philadelphia Eagles Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz during an NFL football training camp in Philadelphia, Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“I mean, some players, it’s taking some calls and some situations off the plate for them,” Smith said. ” ‘You don’t worry about this, you just go. You get off the ball, you get around this corner, you get to the quarterback.” … So he let’s you just go, get off ball and just go.”

Smith never played for the first defensive coordinator under which Schwartz worked, Marvin Lewis. However, his older brother Fernando spent the 1999 season playing for Lewis, then the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens.

It was under Lewis that Schwartz got his on-field break as an outside linebackers coach, which he held from 1996-98. Schwartz left Baltimore in 1999, the same year the older Smith arrived, to become a defensive assistant with the Titans.

“That goes back to what I was just saying with it, that those guys are great minds in football, both of them,” Robaire Smith said. “You know what I mean? So it’s not hard to decipher one from the other one because, like I said, he’s a great mind when it comes to football. :… Jim is a great mind when it comes to scheme and getting to the most out of his players, putting them in a great position to succeed. Jim is very good at that.”

Tennessee Titans senior defensive assistant coach Jim Schwartz watches during an NFL football practice Thursday, June 3, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, Pool)

It’s more than just what Schwartz is going to be able to do with Garrett in various schemes that Smith believes will pay dividends for the Browns. There was another reason why the 11-year pro was giddy about talking about his former coordinator, whom he still refers to as “My guy” and as a “player’s coach.”

Smith believes the interpersonal skills that Schwartz will bring to the table will help him connect with the Browns defensive roster, be it established veterans like Garrett or young players such as Alex Wright, Perrion Winfrey or Martin Emerson Jr.

Will there be some yelling at times? Sure. Will there be some actual conversations that bear fruit? Smith believes so.

“Some coaches you can’t go up to, you can’t pick their brain, you can’t discuss it, you can’t do something because that’s going to make that coach feel like you don’t know what you doing or don’t know what’s going on or can’t key in on the moment,” Smith said. “Besides, like I say, Jim does a great job of listening. Now whether the player’s right or wrong, he said, ‘Well what if we do this instead of what you’re thinking with that,’ and kind of be a tweener. So I think that helps them out a lot to feel comfortable with him, which would allow their natural skills to come out. You want some players to be free as possible out there and I think he does a good job at letting that happen.”

Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz looks on during the first half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

That could also extend to the new head coach Schwartz is going to be working under. No one denies there’s pressure on head coach Kevin Stefanski to get back into playoff contention in his fourth season after the former 2020 NFL Coach of the Year had back-to-back losing seasons the last two years.

This past season saw the Browns deal with multiple issues on their defense beyond just on the field. Winfrey was suspended for a game in Week 2 against the New York Jets, and the season ended with Jadeveon Clowney essentially suspended for the finale at Pittsburgh for disciplinary reasons.

During the season, Grant Delpit sat out the first play of a Week 10 loss at Miami due to a team issue. Garret was also for the first three plays of a Week 16 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Bringing in an established coach with head-coaching experience to basically run the defense is something Smith believes can only help Stefanski.

“You have coaches who are good coordinators, you have coaches that are great head coaches, you know what I mean?,” Smith said. “The great head coaches, they know how to put people in place to where they don’t have to worry about it. You know what I mean? So like you said, that can be taking a lot off Kevin’s place. He don’t have to worry about this defense. He got somebody that, like you said, done not only been a coordinator or position coach but he been a head coach. So that’s like taking a big load off his plate. Now he can tell Jim, you do what you do and I do what I do now. Now, we’re smoking, you know what I mean. Now, we’re going.”

Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Robaire Smith thinks Jim Schwartz with Myles Garrett could be ‘scary’