LAS VEGAS — Jim Schwartz won Assistant Coach of the Year at Thursday night’s NFL Honors ceremony, claiming the league’s most prestigious award available to coordinators. In his first year as the Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator, Schwartz guided one of the most dominant defensive performances in 2023.
Despite Cleveland’s defensive results, Schwartz didn’t receive a single head-coaching interview this offseason. That’s in stark contrast to previous Assistant Coach of the Year winners, many of whom have reached HC opportunities immediately.
Will Coordinator of the Year Jim Schwartz Be a Head Coach in 2025?
Schwartz’s defense — which included 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett — ranked first in defensive efficiency and success rate by a relatively wide margin and tied with the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets in yards per play allowed (4.6).
And yet Schwartz did not receive a single interview request. Eight clubs were searching for new head coaches this offseason, but Schwartz — the Detroit Lions head coach from 2009 to 2013 — was not included in any searches.
NFL teams interviewed more head-coaching candidates than ever during the 2023 hiring cycle. Four teams met with double-digit candidates, while the Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Chargers interviewed at least 15 candidates each.
As the reigning Assistant Coach of the Year, Schwartz’s exclusion from the head-coaching search process is an outlier.
Here’s how quickly each of the award-winning coordinators landed an HC job after winning the prize over the past decade:
- 2022: 49ers DC DeMeco Ryans
- Hired as Texans HC in 2023
- 2021: Cowboys DC Dan Quinn
- Five interviews in 2022, opted to stay in Dallas; four interviews in 2023, hired as Commanders HC
- 2020: Bills DC Brian Daboll
- Two interviews in 2021; three interviews in 2022, hired as Giants HC
- 2019: Ravens OC Greg Roman
- One interview in 2020, never hired as HC
- 2018: Bears DC Vic Fangio
- Hired as Broncos HC in 2019
- 2017: Vikings OC Pat Shurmur
- Hired as Giants HC in 2018
- 2016: Falcons OC Kyle Shanahan
- Hired as 49ers HC in 2017
- 2015: Broncos DC Wade Phillips
- No subsequent HC interviews
- 2014: Cardinals DC Todd Bowles
- Hired as Jets HC in 2015
Roman and Phillips were the only other Assistant Coaches of the Year since 2014 not to be hired as a head coach within one offseason. Phillips, a three-time NFL head coach, was nearly 70 years old after winning the award in 2015, so it makes sense that he wasn’t pursued for top jobs.
Five of the nine previous winners for Coordinator of the Year earned head coaching positions in the same offseason in which they took home the trophy. Only Daboll and Quinn waited a year, and Quinn withdrew HC consideration in 2022 when he might’ve landed a role had he wanted to.
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Will Schwartz become the next Roman? The former Ravens OC fell out of favor in Baltimore and resigned after the 2022 campaign. He was out of the league in 2023 before resurfacing as the Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator under old friend Jim Harbaugh this year.
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