Cleveland Browns head coach found himself in need of a new defensive coordinator at the end of last week with the news that Jim Schwartz would rather go home than continue coaching a defense featuring the game’s best player in Myles Garrett.
With no time to waste with this month’s annual NFL Scouting Combine rolling into March’s free agency period and then the 2026 NFL Draft in April, Monken got to work last week by interviewing in-house candidates Jason Tarver, Cleveland’s linebackers coach, and Ephraim
Banda, the club’s safeties coach.
Monken is now turning his attention outside the walls of Berea with the news that the Browns are interviewing Aubrey Pleasant of the Los Angeles Rams for the job.
That is according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.
A former coaching intern with the Browns in 2013, Pleasant has spent seven seasons across two stints with the Rams, serving last season as assistant head coach/pass game coordinator. He coached the cornerbacks from 2017 to 2020, then moved onto the Detroit Lions, where he was passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach in 2021 and 2022.
After a one-year stop with the Green Bay Packers, where he was an offensive consultant in 2023, Pleasant returned to head coach Sean McVay’s staff with the Rams in 2024.
According to a 2025 article from Jason Reid at andscape.com, Pleasant is regarded a coach who gets the most out of his players:
A committed teacher, Pleasant is renowned for establishing strong bonds with players, helping them maximize their potential. A detailed administrator, Pleasant is a sharp X’s-and-O’s man. A trusted colleague, he’s a person others in the organization turn to for guidance. And perhaps most importantly, Pleasant is a confidant of the Super Bowl-winning McVay, who’s among the league’s most successful and copied coaches. Add it all up, and Pleasant, at only 38, appears to possess the smarts, drive and personality needed to reach the top rung of the coaching ladder.
If the Browns are interested in Pleasant, they will have competition from the Arizona Cardinals, who are also looking for a defensive coordinator. The Cardinals may have an edge in recently hired head coach Mike LaFleur, who served as offensive coordinator with the Rams the past three seasons, meaning there is a level of familiarity between LaFleur and Pleasant.
Cleveland can counter, of course, with the lure of running a defense featuring not only Garrett, who was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year last week, but also Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger, one of the league’s top cornerbacks in Denzel Ward, and the rest of a unit who should be eager to prove that it was not all about Schwartz when it came to the defense.
