If the latest reporting is accurate, at least owner Jimmy Halslam, general manager Andrew Berry, and the Cleveland Browns are shooting for the moon.
John Harbaugh entering the NFL’s current hiring cycle changes everything. The Browns lined up their first five head coach interviews this week, including meetings with their own coordinators in Jim Schwartz and Tommy Rees on Thursday.
Cleveland will reportedly interview Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Arden Durde on Friday, and has also requested to speak with a pair of current offensive coordinators, Todd Monken of the Ravens, and Dan Pitcher of the Bengals.
Outside of maybe Schwartz, none of those names will inspire a ton of confidence from Browns fans. The prospect of Mike McDaniel, the now ex-Miami Dolphins coach, is intriguing as an offensive guru and former Browns assistant during the Mike Pettine era.
But the big fish is clearly Harbaugh, whose Baltimore Ravens owned the Browns over his 18 seasons at the helm. The Browns have gone 8-20 against Baltimore under the Haslams' ownership, starting with the full 2012 season. If you zoom out to Harbaugh’s first season as Ravens coach in 2008, the Browns’ record plummets to 8-28 overall.
Now, the Browns have a chance to do the craziest thing. Harbaugh is expected to take his first interviews next week, after the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs. And per Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot, Cleveland will likely be on Harbaugh’s list of meetings.
Cleveland Browns' interest in John Harbaugh reportedly goes both ways
The local storyline that took off almost immediately on Tuesday was the Harbaughs’ family ties to Northeast Ohio. Both John and his brother Jim, the current head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, grew up going to Cleveland games with their parents, Cabot wrote this week for cleveland.com, and there’s at least a chance that nostalgia could play a role in how John decides to close out his NFL coaching career.
According to Cabot, the Browns are expected to get an interview with Harbaugh unless he “already has a slam-dunk job with another team."
“He’s believed to have legitimate interest in coaching the Browns,” Cabot wrote of Harbaugh, “even with the uncertain quarterback situation and looming rebuild of the offense.”
The Browns definitely don’t seem like the most desirable destination, seeing how they’re unsettled at key offensive position groups like QB, left tackle, and wide receiver, and have one playoff win since the start of their expansion era in 1999. But when you dig deeper into the details, they might actually have one of the better situations of the eight jobs currently available.
Cleveland has a dominant defense, led by the greatest player of this generation in Myles Garrett. The roster is loaded with young talent, after Berry and company crushed the 2025 NFL Draft. The team also has a pair of solid coordinators, Rees and Schwartz, who Harbaugh is fond of, according to Cabot.
No one had the Browns winning the 2026 head coach lottery after moving on from Kevin Stefanski on Black Monday. But they appear to have their name on enough ping pong balls to have a real chance, starting next week.