New Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz will get the respect of the Browns players.

His predecessor, Joe Woods, did not.

And therein lies one of the reasons — one of the big reasons, actually — why Schwartz has a real chance to succeed whereas Woods failed —some say miserably so.

Woods isn’t a bad guy at all. On the contrary, he’s a quality man. The players liked him as a person. Rather, the disconnect was was that he had no street cred with the players. He was a first-timer in that he had never been a coordinator before. His resume was sorely lacking in a very important — and glaring — way.

Conversely, Schwartz has a long and successor history as a coordinator. He’s one of the best in the game. Stuff like that gets players’ attention. They see him — and that knowledge he has — and realize that if they listen and learn from him, it will make them better and more productive, thus enabling them to make more money and contribute to a championship team.

And that Schwartz is an excellent communicator while Woods is not will allow the former to better convey his message.

Words mean things. They really do.

That is true in both football and life.

Steve King