Ben Bloom named Browns Senior Defensive Assistant (3.3.20)
For Immediate Release
March 3, 2020
By Andrew Gribble, ClevelandBrowns.com Senior Staff Writer
The building has changed, but Ben Bloom still gets the same vibe when he walks into the Browns headquarters today as he did more than a decade ago.
Bloom began his coaching career in Cleveland in 2009 as a team operations assistant/quality control coach. Now, 11 years later following a lengthy stint with the Dallas Cowboys, Bloom is back as a senior defensive assistant on head coach Kevin Stefanski’s first staff with the Browns.
“I think it is a special place. I loved my first two years here,” Bloom said. “It is a great opportunity to work with good people.
“It is cool to be back here. The building looks the same from the outside, a little different on the inside so I’m still finding my way around. You got great people here: coaching, scouting, around the building, it makes it a fun place to work. You feel welcomed here, you feel at home here. You feel part of something special.”
Bloom was one of the final additions to the coaching staff on the defensive side of the ball, which will be led by coordinator Joe Woods. He’ll work closely with linebackers coach Jason Tarver and focus heavily on the Browns’ front seven.
“Ben’s somebody I’ve known for a few years,” Stefanski said. “I thought he’s done an outstanding job over his career there in Dallas working with the defensive line, the linebackers most recently. He’s another smart coach that we add to the group that also brings a different schematic knowledge that complements the rest of the group.
“I just think he’s got the right personality to work with Joe and work with Jason and I just think his area of expertise in the front seven and in that Seattle Cover 3 system can be really helpful for us as we go forward.”
Over nine years in Dallas, Bloom held four different titles, the most recent being linebackers coach for the past two seasons. During that stretch, Bloom helped develop 2018 first-round pick Leighton Vander Esch, who became the first rookie linebacker in Cowboys history to be selected to the Pro Bowl after leading the team with a franchise rookie record 176 tackles. This past season, LB Jaylon Smith made his first career Pro Bowl after posting a career-best 142 tackles.
From 2014-15, Bloom was the Cowboys’ defensive line coach, helping the group account for 14 of the team’s 31 sacks in 2015.
In between those stints as a position coach, Bloom worked as an assistant coach/special projects advising head coach Jason Garrett on game plan matchups and schemes, personnel group strategies, film and statistical analysis, game management and situational football strategy. He began his run with the Cowboys as a defensive quality control/assistant linebackers coach, a position he held from 2011-13.
Bloom cited former NFL defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, Raiders defensive line coach Rod Marinelli and former NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin — all of whom he worked under during his time with the Cowboys — as some of the biggest influences on his coaching career.
“I have been fortunate in Dallas to have a lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things. Worked for some really good people that I learned a lot from and believed in me,” Bloom said. “For Jason Garrett, a terrific head coach. He really gave me the opportunity to come to Dallas and gave me an opportunity to work for him for nine years. Believed in me, gave me opportunities, he is terrific.”
Bloom expects the transition from Dallas to Cleveland to be a smooth one, both on and off the field.
“I was fortunate to work in a similar system in Dallas, especially the end when I was coaching linebackers — what we are doing here,” Bloom said. “Joe Woods has been terrific in integrating me and giving me an opportunity. Jason Tarver is the best. Those two guys, just giving me a role and an opportunity to do stuff. I will do whatever. Whatever Joe Woods asks me to do.”
Ben Bloom’s Coaching Background:
2005-07 Tufts University, defensive line/graduate assistant
2008 Harvard University, assistant defensive line coach
2009 Cleveland Browns, team operations assistant/quality control coach
2010 Cleveland Browns, defensive quality control coach
2011-13 Dallas Cowboys, defensive quality control/assistant linebackers
2014-15 Dallas Cowboys, defensive line coach
2016-17 Dallas Cowboys, assistant coach/special projects
2018-19 Dallas Cowboys, linebackers coach
2020- Cleveland Browns, senior defensive assistant
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