Browns HC Kevin Stefanski confirms Joe Woods will be the defensive coordinator in Cleveland

The Cleveland Browns hosted an introductory press conference Wednesday morning where general manager Andrew Berry spoke, as did head coach Kevin Stefanski. Wee’ve been talking about the potential loss of secondary coach Joe Woods for a few weeks now, as well as his replacement. Stefanski confirmed that Woods is at Cleveland’s team facility Wednesday morning and will be the teams defensive coordinator moving forward. That’s a big loss for the 49ers as you saw the evolution of their coverages from 2018 to 2019. There weren’t mental busts, explosive plays, and the unit proved to be much more involved in the running game and more willing tacklers. Safety Jaquiski Tartt told me last week that Woods hammered home early how important it was for the secondary to be involved in the running game. The 49ers bought in, and we saw that play out on the field. It’s not surprising that other teams are poaching coaches off the 49ers staff. This is the first domino. Mike McDaniel won’t last long, either.

I don’t believe it’ll happen, but could Robert Saleh take a head coaching job...in college? On Tuesday, Mike Dantonio resigned as the head coach at Michigan State. It was somewhat shady as he made the announcement 24 hours before National Signing Day, and two weeks after receiving a longevity bonus. Furthermore, Dantionio is the subject of a lawsuit that was filed against the school by a former staffer that’s accusing Dantonio of multiple recruiting violations. What does this have to do with Saleh? The 49ers defensive coordinator grew up in Michigan and got his first coaching job with the Spartans. Maybe Saleh is cut out for college or that’s his dream. Some college destinations are better than NFL coaching jobs from a security standpoint. Let’s say Saleh stays around for another year, and gets offered a head coaching position for a lesser team. The tenure for most coaches isn’t more than 3-4 years in today’s NFL on average. We’ll never know, and it’s unlikely to happen, but the idea was thrown out there and I thought it was interesting.