Content available exclusively for subscribers
On Monday, the Cleveland Browns named Mike Ruttenberg as their new defensive coordinator.
Ruttenberg was an assistant in Atlanta last year under Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who held the same position with the Jets, before becoming the interim coach of Gang Green on October 8, 2024 after Woody Johnson fired Robert Saleh. Ulbrich finished out the ’24 season as interim coach and then left for Atlanta.
Atlanta fired Ulbrich’s boss in Atlanta in 2025, head coach Raheem Morris, but Ulbrich was retained by the Falcons’ new head coach, Kevin Stefanski.
And now he’s lost his pass defense coordinator, Ruttenberg, to the Browns.
Ruttenberg was the Jets’ linebacker coach from 2021-24.
So this sets up a trade scenario for the Jets that makes a lot of sense, and that is attempting to see if the Browns would like to acquire linebacker Jamien Sherwood.
After last season, you could argue that the Jets need a reboot at linebacker with two new starters.
Quincy Williams is a free agent, so they can just let him walk, and he probably wants a change of scenery as well.
Sherwood probably needs one as well, and Ruttenberg would probably welcome him with open arms in Cleveland.
Sherwood even admitted late in the season to a CBS broadcast crew that he needs to work on his pass coverage in the off-season.
Not sure how much that can improve after five years in the league, but Sherwood is a very hard worker, and maybe he can make that happen with his due diligence.
Ruttenberg and Sherwood have a really good relationship.
In 2024, under Rutenberg, Sherwood led the NFL in tackles, and now that he is running his own defense for the first time, you would have to think that he’d love to have a guy like Sherwood, who knows his system, running the show on the field as the green dot linebacker.
The Jets traded two of their best defensive players, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and cornerback Sauce Gardner, during the season, shocking many people, so perhaps it’s time for them to shock people again and trade Sherwood.
He clearly plays better in the Ruttenberg/Ulbrich/Robert Saleh system.
So maybe he should go back to that, maybe with a trade to Cleveland if they are interested, or in Tennessee, where Saleh is now the head coach.
Ruttenberg and Saleh seem to be big fans of Sherwood.
Heck, maybe Ulbrich would be interested in Atlanta, and recommend him to his GM, Ian Cunningham.
Once again, if they were willing to trade Williams and Gardner, why not Sherwood?
Who wouldn’t want the NFL’s 2024 leading tackler, who followed up his 158 tackle compaign in ’24 with 154 last year?
The Jets’ defense last season was one of the worst units I’ve ever covered, and the team got blown out in each of the last five games of the season. Five bad defensive performances in a row to wrap up the 2025-26 campaign.
Blown coverages and missed tackles galore throughout the season.
Why would anybody from the unit not be expendable?
So if I’m Darren Mougey or Aaron Glenn, whoever is making the personnel decisions (not entirely sure how this power structure works yet), they need to give serious consideration to trading Sherwood, and perhaps they can get a third-round pick, so they can get back in that round. They currently don’t have a third-round pick in 2026.
February 17, 2026
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Wednesday.
