Report: Cleveland Browns interview Ray Horton for DC role

The Cleveland Browns may be giving Ray Horton a second chance as the team is reportedly interviewing him for the defensive coordinator position.

The Cleveland Browns have reportedly interviewed Ray Horton for the position of defensive coordinator.

Horton is reportedly the top choice by head coach Hue Jackson to take over the defense in Cleveland, especially with Jim Schwartz expected to be named the defensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles.

With Horton stopping by team headquarters for his interview he may have killed two birds with one stone.

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According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Horton is still being paid by the Browns from when he was the team’s defensive coordinator in 2013, so he may have been able to pick up his paycheck once his interview was completed.

Horton was the defensive coordinator in Tennessee for the past two seasons, and while the Titans finished 12th overall in yards allowed per game with 342.2, the team was 27th in points allowed per game with 26.4 – just a tick ahead of the Browns, who gave up 27 points per game in one of the worst performances in franchise history.

If he is hired it would mark Horton’s second stint running the Browns defense. He was part of Rob Chudzinski’s one-and-down coaching staff in 2013, helping the Browns defense finish ninth overall in the NFL in yards allowed and ninth in passing yards allowed. Even the run defense finished a respectable 18th in the league, giving up 111.3 yards per game and just 3.9 yards per carry.

At his introductory news conference after being hired in January of 2013, Horton laid out his basic defensive philosophy.

“We are going to be a defense that gives offenses problems,” Horton said. “Our guys can play a multitude of things. I don’t like to get pigeonholed into, ‘Well, he is this.’ Here’s what we’re going to be. We’re going to be a team that looks at the offense and tries to take away what they do best. Now, that may mean one snap being a 5-2. The next snap it may be a 4-4. It will be predicated by what the offense does and we have athletes that can stand up, that can put their hand in the ground and that can run. That’s why I go back to the multi-front defense.”

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It sounded good at the time, but, just as in Tennessee, Horton’s defense couldn’t keep opposing offenses out of the end zone as the Browns finished 23rd in the league after giving up an average of 25.4 points per game.

Horton also pointed out that day that trust is a key component of making his defense work.

“All I’m asking my players to do is trust us as a coaching staff that we’ll put them in great positions,” he said. “So whether you’re a guard, center, tackle on offense or on defense whether you’re on the center, guard or tackle, it’s still football and I keep going back to my point, I’ve got big men that will run, little men that will hit. That’s all I need and it’s still football.”

It hasn’t been that long since Horton was running the Browns defense, and fans still remember how things turned out in his first stop in Cleveland.

If he does receive a second chance, he and Jackson may need to ask the fans, and not just the players, to trust that this time things will be different.