Things ended poorly enough between Jim Schwartz and the Cleveland Browns that Schwartz appears poised to sit out the 2026 season rather than continuing his work as the Browns’ defensive coordinator.
Schwartz clearly feels slighted by owner Jimmy Haslam and GM Andrew Berry after being passed over in their head coach search for Todd Monken. His decision to officially resign last week only complicated matters further, as he remains under contract with Cleveland through 2026, with a team option for 2027.
That means Schwartz will need to go through the Haslams, and resolve his contract situation, before he can actively pursue lateral defensive coordinator jobs. At this point in the NFL’s hiring cycle, his options are slim-to-none, unless Klint Kubiak and the Las Vegas Raiders make a run at him, as Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer mused before the Super Bowl.
Speaking of the Super Bowl, another 2026 option for Schwartz might’ve just fallen out of the sky, and it makes way too much sense to ignore.
Patriots DC opening could be Jim Schwartz’s ticket out of Browns contract drama
Just four days after losing to Seattle in Super Bowl LX, Mike Vrabel and the Patriots are making a major change.
Per Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, Vrabel is shifting defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, who spent the bulk of the 2025 season away from the team battling prostate cancer, to a “high-ranking position on the staff,” thus clearing the decks for the team to hire a new defensive coordinator.
The presumed leader in the clubhouse is Zak Kuhr, who assumed defensive play calling duties for the Patriots starting in Week 2 and held that role all the way into February. New England’s defense was dominant in the playoffs, leading all other qualifiers in both sacks and points against.
But Vrabel has a circle of trust from his time as head coach of the Tennessee Titans. One of those names is Shane Bowen, Vrabel's former DC with the Titans who was fired midseason by the New York Giants in November.
There’s also Schwartz, who served as a senior defensive assistant under Vrabel in Tennessee. The two were reunited on Kevin Stefanski’s staff with the Browns in 2024, with Vrabel coming on board as a coaching and personnel consultant after getting fired by the Titans.
Kyed isn’t ruling out another Vrabel-Schwartz reunion in Foxboro.
“Schwartz spent the last three seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Browns, who boasted a top-10 defense in yards allowed two times under Schwartz’s watch. Schwartz resigned from his post with the Browns last week after he was passed over for the vacant head-coaching job, which went to Todd Monken.
Schwartz, who got his start in the NFL with the Browns in 1993 when Bill Belichick was at the helm, has a history with Vrabel. He spent two seasons as a senior defensive assistant with the Titans under Vrabel.”
This still feels like a major long shot, as Kuhr earned himself a serious look at a promotion.
But if there’s a coach who could play the role of mediator and help Schwartz break free from his Browns contract, it’s Vrabel. The Patriots could feasibly promote Kuhr after satisfying the NFL's Rooney Rule, and make a move for Schwartz as assistant head coach, which is a title not yet utilized on Vrabel's staff.