'All starts with trust': Jim Schwartz banking on innate ability to communicate with Browns
BEREA — Marvin Lewis noticed several things about Jim Schwartz during their time together with the Baltimore Ravens in the mid-to-late 1990s. One of the things that stood out to him the most was the way Schwartz, then just a defensive quality control coach, was able to communicate.
It didn't matter if Schwartz was talking to his fellow coaches or to a future Hall of Fame linebacker. The young coach found a way to connect.
"He was gifted with that," Lewis told the Beacon Journal this week. "And, frankly, that's why you have a job is to get to bring the most out of the player and that's what your role is, and you're convincing the player, that's the reason why we're here is what we're doing. And Jimmy had a great knack of that.
"Also, it comes from the respect that you command in the room and to make sure that all the players in that room knew why we were there. And that's to help them get better."
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Schwartz was introduced as the Browns' new defensive coordinator Wednesday afternoon. Once the conversation moved past his memories of starting his NFL career as a Bill Belichick gopher in the early 1990s and overcoming some health concerns that led him to step away from on-field coaching, it turned to his approach to coaching.
That led to Schwartz opining about the importance of communication. Specifically, what's important to opening up the lines of communication.
"I think that all starts with trust," Schwartz said. "I have said this over the years — players really don’t care whether you are young or old, black or white, loud or quiet. If you can help them, they will listen. If they know you are coming from an honest spot and you are telling them the truth, they might not like what you say, but they will take it because they know it is coming from a performance base and it is coming from the truth. Establishing trust is job No. 1. That is probably the biggest thing."
Schwartz has gained a reputation for being fiery over the course of his career. That was especially true over the three previous stops as a defensive coordinator (Tennessee, Buffalo and Philadelphia) and one head-coaching tenure in Detroit.
However, to hear his former players talk about him, you would never have guessed such a character. Robaire Smith, who played for Schwartz in Tennessee on two separate occasions, went so far as to call him a "players' coach" because of the way he'll listen to and engage with his players.
"Schwartz is very personable," Smith told the Beacon Journal. "It ain't nothing you cannot not talk to him about. He ain't a guy that makes you not want to come up and ask him questions, or not come up and pick his brain about something or express yourself with something. I mean, sometimes a lot of players see something different than the coach can see when they out there on that field. So you got to a smart enough coach to know you got to listen to your players. … I mean, that's a great, great characteristic, great thing that he does."
Traits are so often something that are learned, not necessarily instinctual. For Schwartz, his communication skills with his players was something he's learned over time.
The individual to whom Schwartz credits that trait is the late Gunther Cunningham, who was Schwartz's linebackers coach with the Titans from 2001-03 and his defensive coordinator during his run as Lions coach from 2009-13.
It was how Schwartz saw Cunningham interact that made a lasting impression on him.
"He had been a head coach and a coordinator, and just watching the way that he could just lay waste to a guy and then turn around and walk off the field and be laughing and hugging the guy because it was all a performance to 'Gun,'" Schwartz said. "It had nothing to do with knowing his wife or his kids, and the guys knew that and they took a lot of confidence in the fact it was business. He was not going to pull a punch because it was a favorite player, and he was not going to be hard on a guy because he maybe did not like the guy as much. It was about performance."
It's also a talent that coaches can often not obtain. It's a small needle to thread for a coach to balance being a kind of hardline disciplinarian, but also being known, as Smith referred to Schwartz, as a players' coach.
That's why Lewis, who spent 16 years as the Cincinnati Bengals head coach from 2003-18, found Schwartz's ability to pull off the balancing act so impressive.
"Well, it is a skill that you got to have because, just like you said, most of the time the guy that gets labeled the player coach isn't very long for that opportunity because the same guys that are praising him are the ones that want to sit down on him when they get the first chance they get," Lewis said. "So you do have to have that ability to really be able to reach the player. That's the most important thing.
"Like we originally said, we have a job in order to help that player be successful or else we're not needed."
Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.
On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jim Schwartz banking on innate ability to communicate to Browns
