BEREA, Ohio — Just add this latest award to Carson Schwesinger’s soon-to-be growing list of accolades.
After the rookie linebacker’s latest disruptive performance against the Ravens, he was named the NFL Rookie of the Week, voted on by fans.
The honor adds to a résumé already stacking up at a rate few Browns rookies have ever matched.
Schwesinger, the No. 33 overall pick out of UCLA, leads the team with 79 tackles — the fifth-most by a Browns rookie since 1999 — and has two interceptions, eight tackles for loss, five quarterback hits, 1.5 sacks, and two passes defensed.
But production is one thing. Presence is something else. And inside the building, it’s the latter that’s turning heads.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz didn’t hesitate when asked about the honor. In fact, he went bigger.
“I gave him a big compliment on Monday, because I was with Ray Lewis his first three years in the NFL,” Schwartz said. “I don’t think — and Ray’s obviously a Hall of Famer, maybe the best ever to play in the linebacker position — but the command that Carson has now in a lot of respects took Ray’s third year in the league before (he had that command).”
Schwartz is careful with comparisons, especially one this lofty.
He wasn’t saying Schwesinger is Lewis, only that the way he runs the defense — how quickly he processes, how rarely he repeats a mistake, how consistently he’s in the middle of a play — is wildly advanced for a first-year player.
Especially at a position that usually requires years of work before the game really slows down and the lights come on.
“Middle linebacker is hard, linebacker is a hard position to play for a young player,” Schwartz said. " You have to have all of the run fits, you have to have the physicality to play there. You have to be a productive tackler. You have to know all the blitzes. You have to have all the coverage components. And a lot of times it takes guys sort of piecemeal to put all of that stuff together, right?
“They come out as rookies and they really play the run well, but they don’t work on the pass, or they don’t really rush well. And that’s no disrespect to any player that’s ever played. It’s just that’s what goes on in the NFL. It’s a very difficult position and he’s been right in the middle of it.”
Why does Schwesinger think the game has slowed down so quickly for him?
“I think some of it probably just comes from playing football for so long, and I think another aspect is just always trying to find the football, run to the ball,” Schwesinger said. “I think good things happen when you run to the ball. and I think the other part of it is when you play behind a front four and with the back end we have, it makes it pretty easy to just be able to focus on the ball and not have to worry about too much else.”
Part of the rookie’s success is simply who Schwesinger is: a natural communicator, a steady voice, a player who studies (unsurprising, considering he majored in bioengineering at UCLA), absorbs, and responds. In Schwartz’s scheme, the defensive line attacks, and the linebackers react and play cleanup.
But part of it is the physical traits that the Browns saw early — the ball skills and instincts that flashed repeatedly, even back to rookie minicamp when he nabbed an interception off of Dillon Gabriel. Some of those skills come from Schwesinger playing safety in high school.
The early-season stat sheet didn’t reflect it, but Schwartz said it was only a matter of time before Schwesinger started to make game-changing plays.
His two interceptions so far have come against the Patriots, and then the Ravens last week.
“Early in the season we weren’t seeing that,” Schwartz said. “We just said, it was a matter of time. The guy’s a magnet for the ball.”
Inside the locker room, his teammates felt it early too. Safety Grant Delpit didn’t need a month — more like a week.
“I saw it early, I ain’t going to lie,” Delpit said. “I saw early at camp, I think everybody saw. We knew that he was going to be around the ball a lot.”
Delpit, who lines up behind Schwesinger on most snaps, sees the whole operation from a unique vantage point. And when he was asked after Sunday’s game whether Schwesinger was performing at a Defensive Rookie of the Year level, Delpit pushed it further, suggesting he was playing at an All-Pro level.
“I think despite the rookie thing, it’s just the statistics of it,” Delpit further elaborated on Thursday. “I don’t know who votes for that type of stuff or whatever, but just saying that he’s playing at a really high level. That’s all I’m really trying to say. And it’s no secret, everybody knows it, so gonna keep going. Him, Myles (Garrett), Denzel (Ward), me, lead the way.”
For all the praise, Schwesinger rarely shows much reaction. Publicly, he’s steady. Internally, coaches say he’s the same way.
Even now, with Rookie of the Week recognition and with the national chatter about him being a front-runner for the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award, he’s careful not to let it become a distraction.
“It’s cool to see and things like that,” Schwesinger said. “But it’s very easy to get caught up in things like that when really the focus is just how do we go out there and win this week? What do I have to do to be prepared for this week? So I understand the point and obviously I can’t just go and avoid it, but really it’s just trying to maintain focus on this week and what we’re doing.”
Much like he won’t spend much time thinking about accolades or reading his own clippings, Schwesinger also doesn’t spend much time comparing himself to the league’s other standout linebackers.
“Really when we come in and watch the film, I’m looking at what I could do better for myself and for my teammates," Schwesinger said. “I’m really worried about what the guys in here think of me and what the coaching staff thinks of me and how I can improve in those ways.”
Schwartz rightly emphasized there’s still plenty of football ahead — and plenty of plays left for Schwesinger to make.
But for now, the Browns have a rookie who’s outperforming expectations with a level of command that even a veteran coach can’t ignore.
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