The Pivotal Change that Fixed the Browns Defense

A blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1 came with plenty of red flags. Many of them were aimed at the Cleveland Browns defense, which was shredded by Trevor Lawrence for 245 yards and four touchdowns. 

The unit that had carried the team for most of a forgettable 2025 season looked like a shell of itself following an offseason filled with change. Myles Garrett was gone, traded to the Los Angeles Rams in June forJared Verse and a bunch of picks. So was Super Bowl-winning defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, the architect behind much of Cleveland's success on defense the last three years. 

A unit known for getting after the quarterback and playing suffocating man coverage on the back end did neither in Jacksonville. The latter of those was particularly concerning. 

The Browns were in man just 12.5% of the time in Week 1. Conversely, they ran cover 3 over 50% of the time and paid for it. According to star cornerback Denzel Ward, the discrepancy prompted some important conversations between the players and new defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg. 

"It was a lot of internal conversations," Ward said. "It was just a learning game and we all got on the same page and we've been better since then." 

In the weeks since, Cleveland's defense got back to what they do best. In Week 2 it ran man coverage 59.7% of the time. In Week 3, even with Tyson Campbell sidelined with an injury, it still dropped into man coverage 37.8% of the time. And then, this past week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Browns ran Cover 1 a whopping 59.4% of the time. 

Since his arrival in Cleveland as part of Todd Monken's staff, Rutenberg has said he doesn't want to reinvent the wheel with a defense that has had plenty of success in recent years.

Still, he brought his own unique perspective on what works defensively, particularly with different coverages that he wanted to sprinkle onto the group. He tried something, it didn't work as well as he may have hoped, and adapted. 

"Not going to go too deep into what went into it, but as we're all learning and progressing through the season," he said. "I'll steal Monk's line that it's constantly under construction. And the truth is each little week is a season, right?

"Because this thing is a marathon. It's a grind. And every week you're trying to find that winning edge. You're trying to find that winning margin. You're trying to eliminate the things that can hurt you, build on the things that can help you. And you're week to week finding your players' superpowers."

Since the switch back to more man, the Browns are 3-0. The defense's 12 sacks ranks fifth, through four weeks. Their four interceptions also ranks in the top 10.

With more clarity on his teams superpowers, Rutenberg deserves plenty of credit for swallowing his pride and making a pivotal change that has the defense back on track. 

"Having the humility to say, oh, that didn't go as we thought. Let's work it back to this way," Rutenberg said. "It's a credit to our players for constantly trying to find those inches in their game."