Browns almost lost assistant to college football after chaotic coaching carousel

There was a very real possibility that the Cleveland Browns might have had to finish the 2025 season without one of their top assistant coaches.

NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported that the Penn State Nittany Lions had interviewed Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees for their vacant head coach opening.

Penn State ultimately decided to hire Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell.

Before Penn State hired Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, the school interviewed #Browns OC Tommy Rees for the head-coaching job.

Story with @MikeGarafolo: https://t.co/J0pqZ3FdbG https://t.co/J0pqZ3FdbG
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 7, 2025

Rees' coaching resume mostly is consumed of college coaching jobs. He was at one point the offensive coordinator for Notre Dame and Alabama before taking an assistant coaching job with the Browns.

Over the last two years, Rees has held the positions of pass game specialist and tight ends coach in 2024, and this year was promoted to offensive coordinator. Last month, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski handed over the play-calling duties to Rees for the rest of the season.

This season, Rees's focus has been to develop the quarterbacks on the roster. While they didn't win many games with third-round quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Rees helped him protect the football, with just two interceptions on the season.

Over the last two and a half games, it has been all about getting rookie fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders ready to be the starting quarterback of the team. Cleveland is 1-1 in Sanders' starts and saw him go from a 25% completion percentage in his first game to a 64% completion percentage in their last game against the San Francisco 49ers, a losing effort.

It has been a bumpy first season as offensive coordinator for Rees, as his unit ranks 31st in total offense, averaging 258 yards per game. They are also 31st in passing (159.6 yards per game), 27th in rushing (98.5 yards per game), and 29th in scoring (16.2).

As long as Rees is the offensive coordinator for the Browns, he will continue to be a hot name for college football head coaching jobs as he had success in college as an assistant. He knows the ins and outs of recruiting and understands what a winning football program looks like.

There's uncertainty right now about what will happen to the current coaching staff in Cleveland after a 3-9 start and what appears to be a second straight losing season and missing the postseason. If things don't look better through the next five games, it's highly possible that Rees might get more calls, and the offers could be good enough to entice him to leave.