The Pittsburgh Steelers might find themselves in the midst of the NFL coaching search before January has passed by, but for now, fans can only watch the carousel go round out of the corner of their eye.

Of course, with two open vacancies in the AFC North already, what the lowly Cleveland Browns and top-rival Baltimore Ravens decide to do is of long-term consequence. That being said, typically, you’d expect that to mean that the teams hiring new coaches would look rather different under a new regime.

That won’t exactly be the case for the Browns once their coaching search ends, which actually sounds like a wise decision from the front office in Cleveland.

Jim Schwartz staying put with Cleveland Browns is bad news for the Pittsburgh Steelers

According to NFL Insider Jay Glazer, the Browns are intent on keeping Jim Schwartz in their building for 2026.

“Candidates are being told they want to keep Jim Schwartz in there as the defensive coordinator,” Glazer said on Saturday, courtesy of Browns Nation.

While the Browns could eventually promote Schwartz to head coach, at the very least, Steelers fans now know that the defense in Cleveland is here to stay. That aids in Cleveland keeping Myles Garrett and one of the best-coached units together while the offensive side gets its stuff together.

That’s bad news for Pittsburgh, which has struggled against Schwartz’s defense since he was hired in 2023. Since his hiring, the Steelers have split the season series, losing in Cleveland each of the past three seasons. In each of those losses, the Steelers failed to score more than 20 points.

Pittsburgh’s offense has only gained more than 300 yards on Schwartz’s Browns defense twice over the past three seasons, once in the win in 2025 the other in the November 2024 loss. Schwartz’s defense may not pick up many turnovers against the Steelers, just four takeaways in six games, but he always seems to have answers on third downs, where he has held the Steelers to just 29 conversions on 86 attempts, a 34% conversion rate.

Of course, if the Steelers make their own coaching changes, they may fare better against Schwartz in the future. Either way, that’s a tall task to ask of any coach, Mike Tomlin, Arthur Smith, or otherwise. Shwartz has coached five top-5 defenses in his 22-year career as a coordinator or head coach, and two of them were with the Browns.

It makes sense for Cleveland to make a firm decision on keeping Schwartz on staff, though it does make their head-coaching search more interesting. Clearly, they’ll pursue an offensive mind to replace Kevin Stefanski. Whoever that may be will have to be okay with already conceding some control of his staff. That will scare off plenty of suitors, but if the right combination sticks in Cleveland, then the Browns could finally get out of the NFL sewers for a moment.