After conducting an extensive search for a new offensive coordinator, the Cleveland Browns ultimately opted for an internal hire, promoting Tommy Rees to that role after spending one season as the team’s tight ends coach in 2024.
Rees is considered a rising star in the football coaching ranks. The former Notre Dame QB actually interviewed for the head coaching position at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, before the program surprisingly hired Bill Belichick for the position. Then there were rumors that Mike Vrabel – who spent last season as a consultant with the Browns – would be willing to pick Rees to be his next OC in New England if he didn’t get the promotion in Cleveland.
Ultimately, the Browns got it done and, as Rees explained during his introductory press conference Thursday, things worked out the way he wanted.
“Cleveland is where I wanted to be,” Rees said. “I took this job a year ago wanting to be with Coach Stefanski, wanting to be a part of this organization. Obviously the fan base, what this organization represents, the division we’re in. All these things add up, so if it was going to be an opportunity for me, it was one I wanted to be a part of.”
Rees’ affinity for the Cleveland Browns dates back to his youth. As a teenager, he worked as a ball boy for the organization while his father, Bill, was the team’s director of player personnel from 2004 to 2008.
Looking back, it’s not lost on Rees that those years were formative in finding his love for football.
“Growing up, my dad worked for a lot of NFL teams,” Rees said. “For some reason, the Browns were kind of the ones that stuck, probably because I was out here, boots on the field, working in training camp. It’s probably in those years that I really started to fall in love with football And so when I think about my early days in the game, my early love for the game, so many of those memories were tied to being here or watching the Browns. Sunday from home.
Learn more about Rees here: https://t.co/XmpdTiJTgG
— 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@Spencito_) January 23, 2025
From kissing balls for the franchise his father was once building, to becoming the organization’s new offensive coordinator – it’s a true full-circle moment for Rees.
“I haven’t really had time to sit down and think about it,” Rees admitted. “But I know it’s one, just talking with my brother, talking with my dad, it’s a pretty cool story to be able to say, ‘okay, well, when you really fell in love with the game, that’ was in this building, was watching these games. Now, to be in the position that I’m in is something that I’m grateful for.
