For the Cleveland Browns, the process of replacing head coach Kevin Stefanski, fired after a 5-12 season early this month, has been long, painstaking and full of surprises and twists–mostly negative ones. But on Tuesday, there was some good news: Top young candidate Nate Scheelhaase, the Rams‘ passing game coordinator, is still on the market.
The Browns interviewed the 35-year-old Scheelhaase for hours on Monday in Los Angeles, leading to speculation that the team’s interest was piqued. The problem was that the Buffalo Bills, with star quarterback Josh Allen on the roster, talked with Scheelhaase about their open coaching job after he was done with the Browns on Monday.
Given the way things had gone for Cleveland until this week, it would have surprised no one if Scheelhaase landed the Bills gig by the time last night drew to a close. Instead, though, the Browns got good news–the Bills have hired their offensive coordinator, Joe Brady, to replace Sean McDermott.
Browns Still in Running for Nate Scheelhaase
That leaves the Browns with four candidates still standing: ex-Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, current Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, former Chargers coach Anthony Lynn and Scheelhaase.
The Browns are left with a pretty stark choice: go with veteran experience with either Monken or Schwartz, or some combination of both–there has been talk that Monken could come aboard with Schwartz remaining as the team’s defensive coordinator–or go with youth and an up-and-comer in Scheelhaase.
The Browns did cast a wider net initially, seeking an experienced hand in former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and another brilliant young offensive mind in 30-year-old offensive coordinator Grant Udinski. But McDaniel pulled out of the running even before the in-person interviews went down, and Udinski pulled out just after his interview.
McDaniel will be the Chargers’ offensive coordinator and Udinski is returning to Jacksonville as the offensive coordinator.
Those rejections came after the Browns had not even gotten an audience with former Ravens coach John Harbaugh, and saw Jesse Minter pull out of the running to take the job in Baltimore.
‘We’ll Be Pretty Open-Minded’
There was, once the firing of Stefanski was announced, a sense that maybe the Browns would turn to an experienced hand to take over the team. But GM Andrew Berry said he would be open-minded, and certainly, the team’s interest in Scheelhaase bears that out.
Said Berry back on January 5: “We’ll be pretty open minded. I think there are a number of different archetypes of successful head coaches. I think about Kevin, I think it’s easy to forget now that he has, you know, two Coach of the Year awards on his mantle, that when he was interviewed first in 2019 and he didn’t get the job, and then again, I guess it was 2020 and he did.
“In both of those cycles, he had no head coaching experience, and we were the only team that interviewed him. And so, I think our responsibility is to search far and wide. There are good coaches out there. You know, we’ve just got to do our homework and find the right fit for us. We’ll have no preconceived notions as we go into the search.”
Browns Get Good News on Top Young Coaching Candidate