Throughout the Browns' search for a new head coach, associate editor and staff writer Kelsey Russo will break down the candidates as they go through the interview process with the team. Let's first look at Tommy Rees, the Browns current offensive coordinator.
1) After spending one season as the Browns tight ends coach/pass game specialist in 2024, Rees was promoted to offensive coordinator for the 2025 season. He then began calling plays in Week 10, which continued through the remainder of the 2025 season.
"You learn every time you call plays," Rees said on Nov. 6. "I started calling plays the last game of the season in 2019, I had a handful of years there in a row calling them. Called them in big games, called them in games people didn't watch, everywhere in between. Worked for two head coaches that are pretty intense on game day, so obviously you learned how to block out some noise, some friendly fire there. […] You get into a rhythm throughout the game of figuring out what from the plan works, what you need to adjust, what they're doing to try to take some things away. And then you're just looking to build counters and things that can complement what you've already tried to set up. But I think every time you call a game, you learn."
2) Rees spent one season with Alabama as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the 2023 season under former head coach Nick Saban – who had initially reached out to Rees about interviewing for the position. In his lone season with Alabama, Rees helped coach the Crimson Tide to a 12-2 season, with a win in the SEC Championship Game and a trip to the College Football Playoff semifinal – where they lost to the eventual national champion Michigan.
"I grew a lot being in that environment every day, learning from the greatest coach to do it," Rees said in June 2024. "It's something I hold in very high regard. And we grew to have a really nice relationship. I'm going to owe a lot to him throughout my career. […] That experience is something that you can't ever really describe in words, and I'm really fortunate to have that opportunity in my career."
3) He spent six seasons at his alma mater as a part of Notre Dame's coaching staff, first as the quarterbacks coach from 2017-19, and then as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2020-22. In three years as Notre Dame's offensive coordinator and serving as the playcaller, the team averaged more than 30 points per game each year and advanced to the College Football Playoff in 2020 after posting an undefeated regular season.
Rees also helped develop a number of future NFL draft picks at Notre Dame including TE Michael Mayer (second round pick in 2023), RB Kyren Williams (fifth round pick in 2022), T Liam Eichenberg (second round in 2021), TE Tommy Tremble (third round pick in 2021), T Robert Hainsey (third round pick in 2021), QB Ian Book (fourth round pick in 2021) and WR Ben Skowronek (seventh round pick in 2021).
4) Rees first broke into the NFL in 2016 when he spent one season with the San Diego Chargers as an offensive assistant alongside Nick Sirianni. That season, QB Philip Rivers threw for 4,386 yards and 33 touchdowns.
"It was always a goal as I looked at my career," Rees said in June 2024 on coaching in the NFL. "I was fortunate to work with the Chargers for a year, and I was exposed to it and really enjoyed it. And then, things in the college game, I was really fortunate to work for some really good people and have some good opportunities there. So, it was always a goal to get back."
5) Rees was around the Browns in his early teenage years, acting as a ball boy helping to shag Phil Dawson's kicks or catch for the quarterbacks, as well as working two summers on the equipment staff. He folded towels and brushed footballs in the equipment room and delivered laundry to players lockers. And he earned his first paycheck from the Browns – a memento his mother has kept ever since. His father Bill Rees worked as the Browns director of player personnel from 2004-08.
"Those were probably the years I really started falling in love with football. And so, when I think about my early development in the game, my early love for the game, so many of those memories were surrounded by either being here or watching the Browns on Sunday from home. It has come full circle," Rees said on Jan. 23. "Speaking with my brother, speaking with my dad, it is a pretty cool story to be able to say, 'Okay, well, when you really fell in love with the game, it was in this building, it was watching these games.'"
