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The Cleveland Browns had a chance to promote defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz to head coach.
When Kevin Stefanski was let go (and eventually went to the Atlanta Falcons), the opening was there. Schwartz got interviewed, and he seemed to be in the running.
In the end, the Browns went with Todd Monken.
They took the offensive coordinator from the Ravens rather than the in-house defensive mastermind.
Schwartz didn't make a decision immediately, but he eventually chose to depart rather than work with a new head coach who he didn't know.
This week, Schwartz went public with some additional explanation of that move.
This is what he said on The Ryan Ripken Show:
"They wanted to go with an offensive guy. They chose Todd. I'm fine with that. They can make decisions that they want to make but they can't expect me to stay on board for that... a forced marriage isn't going to work in the NFL."
MORE: Myles Garrett's Browns career comes to the most Cleveland of endings
Schwartz's "forced marriage" line sums the situation up pretty well. It's not what he had signed up for -- he knew what working under Stefanski was like, but he couldn't know for sure what it'd be like working under Monken.
NFL timelines often work like that, where coaches, players or front offices end up in charge of or working for a different group than they were originally. It can work, but it can also make it tough to thrive.
Schwartz decided to avoid that situation in Cleveland -- and maybe he saw the writing on the wall of a Myles Garrett trade, too.
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