Tommy Rees first candidate to interview for OC job, with more coming this week

Being offensive coordinator for the Browns, especially if the job includes calling plays, comes with a bright spotlight.Pressure is nothing new for Tommy Rees, the first candidate to interview for the coordinator job, a league source confirmed to The Chronicle-Telegram on Thursday morning. He played quarterback at Notre Dame and was the offensive coordinator and play caller under Brian Kelly at Notre Dame and Nick Saban at Alabama.Former Rice coach Mike Bloomgren hired as O-line coach"Look, we all have pressure when you work in this profession," Rees, Cleveland's tight ends coach, said during mandatory minicamp in June. "I was fortunate to be at a place like Notre Dame where you have that pressure both playing and coaching and obviously you demand a lot of yourself when you get into those positions."There's pressure to do well, there's pressure to own your own expertise and be really good at what you do."Rees, 32, looks like a rising star in the coaching profession. In addition to his previous experience at two of college football's most famous programs — under two of its most demanding coaches — he interviewed twice this season for the University of North Carolina coaching job that went to six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick.Rees interviewed for Cleveland's coordinator job Wednesday. Other candidates were scheduled to do the same Thursday and Friday, and coach Kevin Stefanski indicated Sunday he'd interview multiple assistants from his staff. Receivers coach/pass game coordinator Chad O'Shea and running backs coach Duce Staley are possibilities.Analysis: QB room set for complete and necessary overhaul following Deshaun Watson setbackThe vacancy was created Sunday when Ken Dorsey was fired hours after the 3-14 season ended with a loss in Baltimore. Dorsey spent less than a year on the job.The Browns were last in the league with 15.2 points a game and the quarterbacks threw a league-high 23 interceptions. Stefanski turned over the play calling to Dorsey after seven games and could take back the role which he held for his first four-plus years with the Browns, depending on whom he hires.Rees joined the Browns last offseason as tight ends coach. He also has the title of pass game specialist but downplayed that and said his focus was the tight ends.Andrew Berry 'embarrassed' by 3-14, expects Myles Garrett to spend entire Hall of Fame career with BrownsDavid Njoku struggled coming off his breakthrough Pro Bowl season in 2023. Njoku sustained an ankle sprain in the opening loss to the Cowboys and missed three games. He wasn't himself when he returned, then missed the Dec. 15 game against the Chiefs with a hamstring injury, fought to return the following week vs. the Bengals and sustained a knee injury that sidelined him for the final two games.He played 11 games, catching 64 passes for 505 yards, a career-low 7.9 yards per catch and a team-high five touchdowns."He's a tough guy. That's something I learned about Dave throughout the year, just his commitment and his toughness to wanting to be out there with his guys," Rees said last week. "You saw it a few weeks ago as he gives our team a spark. So really fortunate to be able to coach someone like Dave. It hasn't been the easiest year for him, but he's, throughout all of it, has really strived to try to get out on the field as much as he can."He is truly one of the tight ends in the league that you can have in the game to affect the pass and affect the run, and so that standard doesn't drop for him."GM Andrew Berry doesn't commit to Nick Chubb returning next seasonJordan Akins (40 catches, 390 yards, two touchdowns) and Blake Whiteheart (six, 51, one) were the other mainstays in the tight ends room.Rees talked last week about how much he learned from consultant and former Titans coach Mike Vrabel, who spent a lot of time working with the tight ends in training camp and early in the season."He was invaluable," Rees said. "And just being able to see how he approached different players to reach guys. Not everybody learns the same way, not everybody takes coaching the same way, but his ability to reach guys and use different tactics, that was critical for me. The way he's able to look at the game as a head coach and kind of a full picture of things. So to be able to hear that firsthand and be around it firsthand."And then, honestly for me coming from college into the NFL, for a guy that spent most of his life in the NFL, just the nuances and some of the differences between the two games and hearing that from him was great. I was, still am extremely appreciative of the time I got to spend with him and being able to pick his brain, hear some things from a defensive perspective. It was a pretty unique but really rewarding experience to be able to work with him."Rees has a history with the Browns. His father, Bill, was director of player personnel for the team from 2004-08 during his long career in personnel departments, and Tommy served as a ball boy during that time."Shagging Phil Dawson's kicks and out here catching for the quarterbacks and got my first paycheck and all that," he said in June. "So I think my mom still has it somewhere actually."I was a ball boy. I worked in the equipment room. A lot of the same faces are still there. Folded a lot of towels, brushed down the footballs and shagged kicks. It was a good life when you're 14. There's worse things to do."Stefanski spent time as a tight ends coach with the Vikings and views the job as a great training ground and steppingstone toward becoming a coordinator."The tight end group is part of everything," Rees said. "Outside of the quarterback, you have to know run game, protection, pass game, how to get open, how to block someone. For me, the personal growth there has been tremendous."Look, when you deal with adversity, you learn a lot, and this year has not gone the way any of us had planned for. But I think when you're faced with those times, you learn in different ways and you learn how to keep moving forward, how to keep coaching guys, how to make sure that you're week in, week out putting your guys in positions to have success. Sometimes you learn more in these types of situations than you do when everything's going great."The post Tommy Rees first candidate to interview for OC job, with more coming this week first appeared on BrownsZone with Scott Petrak.