Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz (9.11.25)
Jim, you’re the only one in this building on the Browns end who lived through ’95. You then went on to Baltimore in ’96. How do you feel about the Ravens celebrating their anniversary with you in town, the Browns?
“Is that right? I’m the only person. Wow. You know what, let me defer those comments for another time, because that’s not going to matter to anybody on the field. It’s not going to matter to our team or their team. You know, people celebrate different things and different timing and everything else, but we’ll keep the focus on the field and the players that are actually going to be playing, not ghosts from 30 years ago.”
So how do you duplicate what you did against the (Cincinnati) Bengals this week?
“I don’t know. I thought we left a lot of plays. Like, we certainly weren’t happy with the first drive of the game. We keep track of, like, not only different stats in the game, but whether you want a snap or lost a snap. A lot of different things go into it. But of those 14 snaps, we only won like two of the first 14. After that, we played really, really well. But it doesn’t erase that first drive. So, we need to get off to a faster start, and I think that’s probably the big thing. It did give a glimpse of what we can be, particularly the third and fourth quarter, but really started, I guess, the last drive of the first half. I mean, they had 20-some seconds left, a couple timeouts. See a lot of times around the league now because of these kicks people get in field goal position. I thought we came out to play there, and it carried over to the second half. But the carryover from last week, I mean, like I said, different players, different schemes, you know, everything there. For us to play well, we’re going to have to limit their run game. They’re the best run team in the NFL, and that’s Derrick Henry, but also Lamar Jackson with the scrambles and design quarterback runs, which, you know, everybody sees a lot of. You know, we’re going to have to do a good job on his scrambles, like I say, we’re going to have to tackle some of their playmakers, particularly Zay Flowers. They get him the ball a lot of different ways. If we do those things, regardless of what happened last week, if we do those things, we’ll set ourselves up for success on Sunday.”
Jim, how is Lamar (Jackson)? Where is Lamar’s biggest improvements since he’s come in the league?
“Yeah, I mean, he’s been at the top of his game for a few years now. I think he’s – I mean, everybody, you know, does some things a little bit better as they get older and things like that, but I think most of the improvements he had came early in his career, and now he’s just playing consistently. I mean, doesn’t turn the ball over very much. You know, uses his legs when he has to. He’s been – and this was probably about three years ago or so, he got significantly better versus the blitz. You know, that used to be something that people could do to take his legs away, make him throw quicker than he wanted to. He’s a really good deep ball thrower, saw that last week in Buffalo. That ball to (DeAndre) Hopkins right there. You know, we have a lot of respect for him. We know we’re going to have to play our very best when he’s out there, but I don’t think what we’re seeing from him is a recent development. It’s been a few years coming, and hats off to him for the improvements that he’s made, particularly early in his career.”
So, Jim, what did you think was missing in those first couple drives? And then what did you like most about them in the second half?
“Yeah, I mean, in that first series, we had two miscommunications. We had a couple missed tackles. We had a penalty. And some of that, I mean, you don’t want to excuse it, but some of it – I mean, that crowd was loud, you know, and it taxed our communication, and we adjusted to it pretty quickly. Plus, they were doing some things – that game was a plethora of sideline and halftime adjustments. I mean, there was a lot going on. Players really did a good job with it. The assistant coaches did a good job with it because we had to change course a couple times because there were some things that they hadn’t shown before, different ways they were trying to attack us. We transitioned pretty quickly after that drive. But, you know, early in the season, you’re always thinking about tackling. We missed a couple tackles in that drive. Early in the season, particularly with a loud crowd, you’re talking about communication, talking about assignments, you’re talking about penalties. We sort of shot ourselves in the foot with all those, paid the price with a touchdown on that first drive and then adjusted pretty quickly to the game. Tackled pretty well throughout that game other than that first series. And our communication got better and started seeing us play a little bit better.”
Jim, I have a question about defensive takeaways. Sunday, the Browns held the lead for only four and a half minutes that game. Go back to last year, there were 10 games that never had a lead and you held the lead about 10% of the total time, last year. So, the question is, it’s not an excuse, but how hard is it to make turnovers when you’re playing from behind?
“I mean, it does change it a little bit. I think you have a good point there. When teams are behind, they have to be potentially a little bit more risky, right? They got to fight for extra yards. They have to put some balls in some harm way. They can’t afford just to take the check down. They have to be more aggressive to try to score, prop back more, give you more chances for sack strips. So, I think all that goes into play. But you know, generally turnovers is playing physical and playing with speed and effort, and we can concentrate on those things. Play physical, attack the football and play with good effort. Be around the ball as much as we can and…but there is nothing like having a team behind that’s forced to catch up because just by definition they have to be a little bit more risky. You’re down two scores in the fourth quarter. You can’t check a ball down. You got to hold it longer or you got to try to fit it in a window maybe that you shouldn’t try to fit it into which gives you a chance for some turnovers. Be good around the quarterback in the pocket, good chance for turnovers there. Play physical and get guys to the football. If we do those things, turnovers will come.”
Fourth quarter, you had the back-to-back sacks from your defensive line. How were they able to execute that? How were they able to get those, so many three and outs in that fourth quarter? How do you turn that from flashy series into consistent efforts throughout the season?
“Yeah, a lot of that – I mean, D-line made those sacks. But a lot of the credit there goes to the secondary and the way they disguised their look and changed the picture for (Joe) Burrow after the snap. What he thought he was seeing, all of a sudden we changed and you know, you’re talking about a guy that throws super quick, right? Makes quick decisions – boom, balls out. And in those cases, it was okay, make him have to hesitate just a half a second by the time and then we can get there with our pass rush. I think, I think you saw a really good combination there of coverage and pass rush. It was well executed coverage, and it was also a really good job in disguise right there. So I think that, we were close to getting a safety on that one play. Ball was a little loose right there, but they made the play, they got the ball out, we set the offense up in good position after that play, but a safety would have gone a long way to helping us win that game also.”
What can you say about Myles Garrett, just the game that he had, mostly the second half, and the way he was able to sort of takeover and dominate?
“Yeah, and like I said, there was a lot of adjustments that were going on in that game. There was a lot of change plan. They were playing him a little bit different in the first half and we changed course pretty quickly to free him up. And you know, that goes hand in hand. We have to execute the scheme. We have to have a plan for it, but then he also needs to win in wherever he’s assigned to win. So, it wasn’t just the pass rush. We’ve talked about this, it’s tackles for losses, a lot of penetration, a lot of tackles for losses. And I’ll go blue in my face when I say, ‘okay, you sack a quarterback on first and 10 and it’s second and 15, or you get a five-yard tackle for a loss.’ One of them gets a lot more publicity and gets a lot more recognition, but as far as affecting the game, they’re both the same. It’s second and 15, you know? He was able to turn it on, we had to adjust with some of the stuff that they were doing, but we did a good job transitioning that stuff, and he did a good job winning some of those rushes and if we can get him one-on-one, there’s a good chance that we’re going to win.”
When you talk about that run game with Lamar (Jackson), (Derrick) Henry. What kind of pressure does that put on Carson (Schwesinger) in the middle of your defense? And with a guy like Lamar, it feels so different. Does it take time to get used to playing a guy like that?
“You know, I mean, there is a, definitely a speed element that you have a hard time replicating on the practice field. So, there’s that, and some of the extended plays, it’s hard to practice some of those. But our guys have experience there. They know what they’re dealing with. And I think we’ll be ready for that portion of it. Carson’s just one out of 11 guys. It’s not going to be his sole responsibility to stop one person, but he has to play his part. Here’s the thing, we need to be physical on our defensive line and at our linebacker level, because you have an extremely strong, extremely big running back that can go North-South. And look what happened to Buffalo a few times with just giving up those North-South lanes, and you give that guy a head of steam it’s tough on your defense. So, if we’re doing a good job playing physical up front, we’re getting some penetration, we’re not giving him those downhill where he gets his fifth foot in the ground, doesn’t have to change course, that’ll go a long way to stopping the run game. Carson has a big part of that, but so does everybody, and everybody’s got to be able to tackle. We got to get people to the ball. Our corners have to do a good job tackling off the edge. You know, defensive linemen, linebackers need to do a good job filling those A and B gaps. It’s going to take a team effort.”
Does the running quarterback put greater responsibility on the middle linebackers?
“I mean, it puts greater responsibility on everybody, because you add another element to the run game that doesn’t need a blocker, you know what I mean? So, traditionally eight-man front stuff, usually it’s eight guys in the box and there’s a guy in each gap. And win your gap, be physical and tackle, and you’re okay in the run game. When you start adding the cool quarterback in, you add another gap, right? So, you need to tie in your secondary a little bit more. You need to double duty some people. They got to be able to scrape some gaps and things like that. It just adds another layer to it. And, I mean, Baltimore’s really good at it, and Lamar Jackson’s really good at it, but you see it pretty consistently through the league now.”
We saw Myles Harden started at that nickel corner spot on Sunday. Just what did he show you over the summer that made you confident in putting him out there week one?
“Yeah, I mean, first of all, his play speed has been really good through training camp, through preseason games, and in this last game, so that’s one. His physicality. He’s played tough, he’s tackled well. You know, that goes into it also. Just been very competitive, and he’s been assignment sound. He dealt with some injuries last year that sort of set him back from making the progress that we wanted to see from him. But I thought he had a very consistent camp. I think he showed some of the things that we value, and that physical toughness, and that effort. I thought he did a good job holding it down. The one pass he gave up to (Tee) Higgins over the middle, our pass rush wasn’t very good there, and we opened a big gap for the quarterback to have vision to see. And he’s right there, I mean, Higgins sort of basketballed him on that one, and Burrow made a perfect ball placement. I like to think that if we had a little more inside presence in the pass rush on that one, he wouldn’t have found that window or wouldn’t have been able to make as accurate a throw. But I thought he showed some good promise there. And as long as he plays tough, as long as he plays physical, and as long as he plays with great effort, is assignment sound, he’ll be a contributing member to our defense.”
Quick question about Mohamoud (Diabate), he didn’t get a ton of snaps. Obviously he’s coming off the quad (injury), do you expect that to increase his versatility, and do you think there’s a role for him especially with his speed in the middle of the defense?
“Yeah, there’s always a role for Mohamoud (Diabate). He did a good job on special teams. You know, our nickel linebackers were Devin (Bush) and Carson, so he took some base snaps, maybe some extra backer snaps, things like that. He’s a valuable member of our defense.”
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