What in the world do you think Jim Schwartz is thinking?
Schwartz was the former highly successful Browns defensive coordinator who everybody thought was going to get the head-coaching job after Kevin Stefanski was fired at the end of last season. It seemed to fait d’compli that he was going to be elevated to the position. It just made all the sense in the world.But when the smoke had cleared, the Browns had passed over Schwartz for Todd Monken.
Schwartz was not happy at all about it, to say the least. He was unbelievably upset, and totally dismayed, and so were the majority of Browns fans. They were stunned as well.
Monken’s debut came last Sunday in the regular-season opener at Jacksonville, and it did not go very well. In fact, it may have been the worst season opener in club history. If not, then it’s on the short list thereof.
The Browns lost 34–10, and it was nowhere near even that close. They were out of the game by the middle of the second quarter.
You have to believe that Schwartz either watched it, or listenef to it, or was at least aware of what was going on in the game. That was his team, and those were his guys, and I’m sure he wanted to see what happened with the man who the Browns thought would do a better job than he would.
The fact that it went so poorly seems to raise the question if the Browns hired the right man. It certainly was not a good look.
Do you think the result of the game made Schwartz happy, proving his point that he was better equipped to take over? Do you think it made him upset. do you think it made him a little bit of both? I think the last one is true.
Monken was hired because the Browns hierarchy thought that they needed an offensive mind to be the head coach after all the offensive problems they’ve gone through over the last several years. But Schwartz’s contention was that he could run the defense and hire somebody to be the offensive coordinator who had a good mind for that side of the ball. You had to think that on his worst day, Schwartz could’ve done better than 34–10.
Let’s be clear about this. When Schwartz came back for the second tour of duty after working on Bill Belichick’s staff as a personnel assistant in the 1990s, he made the point over and over again that hereally loves the Browns. They were the team that gave him his first chance 30 years ago. So this job would have been personal for him, and he would’ve thrown everything he had into it to make sure that it worked.
Now Schwartz is spending the year out of football to kind of gather himself and prepare for whatever is next for him, and the Browns will charge ahead with Monken as the offensive mind and Mike Rutenberg as the defensive coordinator. Make no mistake about it, as bad as the offense was against the Jaguars the defense was just as bad. And if Monken is supposed to be a great quarterback coach, he sure didn’t do much with Deshaun Watson, who looked worse than you could ever imagine.
It’s all just a big mess, which is exactly what the Browns didn’t want to happen when they hired Monken. But they got the guy they wanted, and now they have to live with it. The problem is, so do Browns fans.
Steve King
