Catching up on Browns coaching hires

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski took his time, but he completed his first coaching staff this past week.

Stefanski wrapped up the process by adding:

• Ben Bloom as a senior defensive assistant,
• Stephen Bravo-Brown as a defensive quality control coach,
• Ryan Cordell as a coaching assistant,
• Jeremy Garrett as assistant defensive line coach,
• Brandon Lynch as assistant defensive backs coach, and
• Seitu Smith as an offensive quality control coach.

Bloom worked with the Dallas Cowboys from 2011 through 2019, starting out as the team’s defensive quality control coach and assist linebackers coach. In 2016, he took over the role of assistant coach/special projects, where he advised head coach Jason Garrett on personnel group strategies, game management and other situational football strategies.

Bravo-Brown comes to Cleveland from the college ranks, where he coached wide receivers at Waldorf University (2015), Wake Forest (2016 to 2018), and Missouri State (2019).

Cordell spent last season with the Browns as a football research analyst. Prior to that, he was with the San Francisco 49ers for four years, serving as an offensive assistant in 2015, a football operations coordinator in 2016, and as a special assistant to general manager John Lynch in 2017 and 2018.

Garrett, who played college football at Mississippi, came back to the game in 2010 when he took over numerous roles at Southaven High School in Mississippi, including assistant football coach. From there he moved on to Ensworth High School in Nashville in 2011, once again assuming numerous positions, assistant defensive football coach. In 2018, he was named the head football coach. He spent last season as a defensive quality control coach at Vanderbilt University.

Lynch is a former defensive back, having played with the Tennessee Titans (2004), Indianapolis Colts (2005 and 2006), and the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders (2007 through 2009). He spent the past three seasons coaching the defensive backs at East Carolina University.

Smith has taken a different route to the NFL as he began his coaching career at Durham University in England while working on his master’s degree. He coached running backs and linebackers at J.P. Taravella High School in Florida in 2017, served as a director of player personnel at Dartmouth in 2018, and was the quarterbacks coach at Brown University in 2019.

Stefanski has built an interesting staff, with a mix of experienced assistants and some coaches who have taken a less traditional path to the NFL.

Now it is time for Stefanski to pull everyone together ensure that this all works out.