The praise for new Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz just keeps rolling in.

To hear everyone tell it, he is the second coming of Howard Brinker and Nick Saban, the two best defensive coordinators in Browns history, in that order.

That’s great. It inspires hope, which is a lot better than hopelessness.

But let’s keep in mind that we’re just past the midway point of January. We’re still a few days away from the AFC and NFC divisional playoffs for the 2022 season. The games that count in the standings for the 2023 season won’t begin to be played for almost eight months.

With that having been said, then, we can say pretty much anything we want There’s no way right now to validate any of it.

But the real proof of Schwartz’s worth will be how his defense performs when the lights go on next season. Nothing else — not the minicamps or the OTAs or training camp or the preseason games, none of any of that stuff — matters one bit.

So, enjoy all the rhetoric now. Let’s hope it still has a positive tone next fall.

And if it does, then Jim Schwartz will be deserving of it all.

Steve King