The Browns are one of three teams without a head coach. And they are down to three clear finalists.
Via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the candidates are current Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, former Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, and Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase.
Via Cabot, the Browns “did more work” on the three finalists today — and “we could possibly still hear something tonight.”
Some believe Schwartz is the favorite, given that they have to choose between elevating him or possibly losing him.
Schwartz, in 2023, had the top-ranked defense in the league. In 2025, Schwartz’s defense finished second in the NFL.
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Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp had a significant impact on Sunday against his former team. Even if the stat line doesn’t show it, Kupp was one of the big reasons why Seattle advanced to the Super Bowl.
Perhaps the biggest play came when Kupp managed to catch a pass and convert a first down with 3:20 to play and the Seahawks leading by four.
On Monday, he admitted that he did something he shouldn’t have done.
“That’s a cardinal sin,” Kupp told reporters. “You don’t do that on third down. But I felt good about where I was at holding the ball and I also felt like based on how my momentum was going, where the DB was, how my body position was the only chance I had was to try to reach that thing out. I wasn’t concerned about the ball coming out. I knew the ground had forced the ball out, so weren’t concerns about that. The spot, I knew it was close.”
He was later asked to explain why it’s a “cardinal sin” to do what he did on third down.
“You never reach on third down,” Kupp said. “Fourth down, end of game, last play of the game where it’s fourth down, that’s where you can reach. On third down it’s because of that. Like if it was close and you get tackled and you’re short you have an opportunity to go for it still. You reach for it on third down, fumble, that opportunity is gone now. You eliminated the chance for anything on fourth down. And so that’s why you don’t do it on third, but it worked out. Process over results, so you don’t do that. Don’t do it.”
You don’t do it, unless you do. He did. And it worked.
It still would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the Rams had opted to throw the challenge flag. Would it have been ruled a first down? Would the replay process have concluded that Kupp was going to the ground when he caught the ball and lost possession when he landed, a la Brandin Cooks?
Regardless, it worked. And it helped slam the door on the last chance the Rams surely assumed they’d get (other than with 93 yards to go and 25 seconds left) when they went for it on fourth and four from the Seattle 6.
After Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks in the NFC Championship, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford didn’t have much to say about the future. On Monday’s new episode of the Let’s Go! podcast, Stafford didn’t have much more to say about what comes next for his football career.
“It’ll be a lot that goes into it,” Stafford told Jim Gray. “It’s a physical, a mental and emotional decision, a personal and a family decision as well. So, we’ll figure all that kind of stuff out with some time.
“I know I had a ton of fun playing football this season and had so much fun playing for the Rams. So when I’m ready to figure that out, I’ll be ready to figure that out. That moment isn’t right now. I have so much more time, I feel like, to reflect on just the people and the season that we just had. I want to appreciate that and give it the time that it deserves before I start thinking personally about what’s next for me and my family.”
He has time, but not an indefinite amount. The Rams will need to know what he’s doing before the start of free agency at the very latest. And free agency starts in just six weeks.
Last year, contract talks between Stafford and the Rams bogged down to the point where the Rams gave Stafford permission to seek a trade. The Raiders and Giants were very interested. Stafford eventually stayed put with a relatively modest (in the grand scheme of things) bump for 2025.
This year, Stafford will be entitled to something much more than a bump over the $40 million he’s due to make in 2026, given that he might be nine days away from hoisting an MVP trophy. He arguably had the best season of his entire career.
To get what Stafford fully deserves this time around, maybe he needs to not use the possibility of playing for another team as his leverage. In 2025, the Rams called his bluff. His better play in 2026 may be to say to the Rams, “I think I may be done playing.”
Really, what’s their alternative? Jimmy Garoppolo? Last year, Aaron Rodgers was Plan B. This year, with Rodgers a year older (as we all are), it could be a little more dicey for the Rams to address the most important position on the team, if Stafford decides that 17 years and $408 million is more than enough.
Buffalo interviewed Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase on Monday night, the team announced.
That brings their total to nine candidates for their head coaching search.
Scheelhaase, 35, joined the Rams’ staff in 2024. Since then, the Rams have ranked third in pass yards per game and fifth in points per game.
He coached at Iowa State from 2018-23, working his way up from running backs coach his first season to offensive coordinator in 2023.
Scheelhaase completed his second interview with the Browns on Monday.
The Bills also have Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, former Giants head coach Brian Daboll, Commanders run game coordinator, Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski, Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver and Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb under consideration for the job.
Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase has wrapped up his second interview with the Browns for their head coaching vacancy.
Scheelhaase had his first interview with the team on January 16 and the second meeting had to wait until after the Rams participated in the NFC Championship Game. Sunday’s 31-27 loss to the Seahawks freed Scheelhaase up for an in-person interview, which the Browns announced on Monday evening, and the Browns could also hire him now that the Rams’ season is over.
If that happens, Scheelhaase will pass on the opportunity to interview for the Bills’ head coaching job. Word of their request to interview Scheelhaase came while he was meeting with the Browns on Monday.
The Browns have already seen several candidates pull their names from consideration for the job and they’ll have to continue the search process if they don’t come to an agreement with Scheelhaase.
Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase may have options in his head-coaching job search.
Scheelhaase, who is considered a strong candidate for the Browns’ head-coaching job, is also a candidate for the Bills job.
The Bills have requested an interview with Scheelhaase, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
If both teams are interested, the Bills would seem to be the better job for Scheelhaase, a former Illinois quarterback who has developed a reputation as a good coach of quarterbacks and would surely would love the opportunity to work with Josh Allen.
The 35-year-old Scheelhaase became an assistant coach at Illinois after playing there, and later became offensive coordinator at Iowa State before spending the last two years with the Rams. He’s now viewed as one of the best young coaches in football, and a good prospect to be a head coach. Perhaps a coach viewed as a top prospect by more than one team.
The Cardinals will have an assistant from a division rival in for a second interview this week.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur will meet in-person with Arizona on Monday and Tuesday for the club’s head coaching vacancy.
LaFleur, 38, has been with the Rams as offensive coordinator since 2023. While he does not call plays, as head coach Sean McVay performs that duty, LaFleur was formerly the Jets’ offensive coordinator from 2021-2022.
LaFleur has also spent time with the 49ers, Falcons, and Browns under Kyle Shanahan as head coach and offensive coordinator.
He is the younger brother of Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
LaFleur may not be Los Angeles’ only assistant to land a head coaching job, as passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase is meeting with the Browns for a second interview on Monday.
Rams wide receiver Davante Adams called getting to the Super Bowl “almost like a mythical thing” while discussing his history in the NFC Championship Game last week and it will remain that way after Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks.
Adams went to the game four times as a member of the Packers and lost all four times, so he’s now 0-5 with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. After the game was over, Adams was emotional in the locker room and told reporters in the locker room that his history was the reason why he felt “heartbreak” about the result. He also said that the disappointment made it impossible to think about the bigger picture of the season.
“I mean, it’s tough to focus on that right now,” Adams said. “It’s tough. It’s a tough moment we’re in right now. So, process the emotions of this and then worry about that. Obviously, I love this team, love what this team is about and love the fight that we had all year. It just sucks to come up short.”
Adams caught a touchdown in the 31-27 loss and is now tied for 10th in NFL history with nine postseason touchdown catches, so it’s not like Adams has not experienced success in playoff action. The big wins continue to elude him, however, and it will be a long wait to see if he can finally break through.
Last week, Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp downplayed the storyline arising from the NFC Championship matchup with his former team, the Rams. On Sunday, Kupp had a major impact on the outcome.
The stat line (four catches, 36 yards, one touchdown) doesn’t do justice to his impact. Beyond the two key catches he made on the drive that pushed a 24-20 score back to an 11-point margin, Kupp’s fourth-quarter catch and dive on third and seven kept the Rams from getting the ball back with more than enough time for a game-winning drive.
After the game, Mike Silver of TheAthletic.com got to work on prospecting for some interesting nuggets about the broader Kupp-Rams relationship. And Silver struck gold.
In the Week 16 showdown between the two teams, which helped determine the location of Sunday’s rubber match, Kupp’s fumble with less than a minute to play in the second quarter ended a potential scoring drive. Then came halftime, and things got spicy.
Citing several unnamed witnesses, Silver reports that, as Rams and Seahawks assistant coaches shared an elevator from the press box to the locker room, a Rams offensive coach “asked which Seattle player had been responsible, and when another replied that it was Kupp, the coach snickered as though he expected the answer.”
Seahawks linebackers coach Chris Partridge became, per Silver, “enraged” by the reaction. Rams defensive pass rush coordinator Drew Wilkins “yell[ed] back” at Partridge. At that point, Partridge “had to be held back by other Seahawks coaches in the packed elevator, averting a possible skirmish.”
News of the incident spread. “It was kind of a thing in our locker room during halftime,” an unnamed Seahawks player told Silver.
And while that game happened more than a month ago, it was surely something the Seahawks remembered on Sunday. It was surely something Kupp, who exited the locker room without speaking to reporters, remembered, too.
“When it ended with the Rams, we weren’t in a good place,” Kupp told Silver earlier this month.
Kupp and the Seahawks are in a great place currently. And while it’s impossible to draw a straight line back to the elevator incident from December 18, it’s reasonable to assume that there was at least a trail of popcorn from that moment to Kupp’s motivation only 38 days later.
Rams punt returner Xavier Smith made an incredibly costly play on Sunday when he muffed a punt to set up a Seahawks touchdown in the Rams’ 31-27 loss. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said all he could do is support Smith afterward.
Asked after the game what he said to Smith, Stafford said it was all supportive.
“I told him I loved him,” Stafford said. “And I do. The guy wants to go out there and make every play he possibly can, and sometimes it doesn’t happen. I’ve been in those situations. It doesn’t change how I feel about the human being, the person, the player. I love the guy, I trust him and wish nothing but the best for him. Obviously a mistake he doesn’t want to have happen, but we had our opportunities after that to grab hold of the game and make enough plays to win. We just didn’t do it.”
Stafford took issue with a reporter who said the game came down to Smith’s mistake.
“I think it came down to a whole lot more than just that,” Stafford said. “It was a battle the whole game. . . . We had our opportunities, didn’t make it.”
It was a costly play by Smith, but Stafford is right that any football game comes down to more than one play. And Stafford, as a team leader, doesn’t want one teammate to shoulder all the blame.
