According to a report from Paul Kuharksy or PaulKuharsky.com, the Tennessee Titans have granted their outside linebackers coach Ryan Crow permission to interview with the Cleveland Browns for their defensive line coach position. The implication is that Ben Bloom, the team’s defensive line coach for the 2023, would no longer hold that position.
The Browns let go of three offensive assistants including offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney. The team has not announced any coaching moves, but those three have been confirmed through reporting. No one has reported anything about Bloom or anyone else on the defensive side of the ball. So if this is true, Kuharsky has quite accidently broken the news that Bloom is no longer with the Browns organization or is being reassigned.
Bloom was in his first season as a defensive line coach, given the job when Jim Schwartz was hired as the team’s defensive coordinator. Bloom had been with the Browns the previous four seasons, but in different roles. In 2020, Bloom was hired as the team’s senior defensive assistant. In 2021 and 2022, he was the defensive game run coordinator. After Chris Kiffin left the team in 2022, Bloom was given the job of defensive line coach.
If Bloom is no longer the defensive line coach, Crow has ties to Schwartz when both were with the Titans. With Mike Vrabel’s firing as head coach of the Titans, his coaching staff is now seeking new opportunities. Crow had been with Vrabel for the entirety of his head coaching tenure with the Titans. He started as a defensive assistant coach in 2018 and 2019 before becoming the assistant special teams coach in 2020. The last three seasons, he’s operated as the team’s outside linebackers coach.
For the Titans, those are their featured pass rushers. Harold Landry, Denico Autry, Rashad Weaver and Bud Dupree were some of the players he’s worked with the past three seasons. That list would also include Jadeveon Clowney who played for the Titans in 2020, which would’ve been Crow’s first year. Clowney famously ripped the Titans when in his introductory press conference when he signed with the Cleveland Browns. Clowney would then rip the Browns in 2022, clearing his way to be released.
Crow has connections to the state of Ohio that go beyond Schwartz. He is from Findlay, OH and is a former walk-on who earned a scholarship for football at Bowling Green. He spent time at Baldwin Wallace University where he was an offensive line coach starting in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, he was also the team’s offensive coordinator. In 2017, Crow worked as a graduate assistant at Ohio State where he focused on linebackers.
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