BEREA — Imagine a baseball pitcher, one with one exceptional pitch. Mariano Rivera and his cutter or Phil Niekro and his knuckleball would be great examples of that.

Now, imagine those two adding a second great pitch. They could be practically unhittable.

Take that comparison and apply it to the Browns defense. That's what defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is doing as he goes into his second season in Cleveland.

"We're obviously in a different spot because we have a year in the system," Schwartz said Thursday. "So, I think what that affords us is the ability to work on more changeups, like, we're a fastball team, right? We do what we do, we try to do it really well. But there were some things that we sort of held back last year, just from a standpoint, that we sort of triaged it and said, 'OK, what can we reasonably expect to get good at to master in one offseason?'

"So, we had to sort of pick and choose, but that now gives us a little bit of time because now we don't have to work on the fastball now, we can add different pitches."

That was a heck of a fastball the Browns defense had a year ago. It was good enough to lead the league in multiple major categories — including total yards allowed, passing yards allowed and first downs allowed — while it ranked second to the Baltimore Ravens in DVOA.

The Browns knew enough this offseason to try to keep as much of that defense together, despite a number of unrestricted free agents they could've lost. Instead, they made a point to re-sign a large percentage of those, most notably defensive end Za'Darius Smith, defensive tackles Maurice Hurst Jr. and Shelby Harris and safety Rodney McLeod.

Although the Browns did lose starting defensive tackle Jordan Elliott and, more importantly, veteran linebackers Anthony Walker Jr. and Sione Takitaki, they ultimately brought back at least eight of 11 starters. Depending on personnel packages, that number only increases.

Schwartz now gets to take that experienced group and add to its repertoire.

"Just in general, over my years, it seems like you sort of, I guess, rotate 20% of your schemes every year," Schwartz said. "Some things fall out of favor, some things lose their effectiveness, and then there's some new things that start trending across the league. So, I mean, that's just natural, but I do think there's some things that we can get to that we purposely sort of held back a little bit last year."

Even the best pitchers get hit, though. The Browns defense got hit hard the last time it was on the field.

Cleveland's season ended with a 45-14 loss to the Houston Texans in an AFC wild card game. The Browns surrendered 274 yards and three touchdowns to Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud, with 236 yards and all three touchdowns coming in the first half.

Schwartz acknowledged the playoff loss has been something heavily scrutinized by the coaching staff since it occurred.

"Obviously, we're a high-risk defense," Schwartz said. "We're not a bend-and-don't-break team. You know, we put a big emphasis on making plays and being aggressive, and my biggest takeaway from that was we chased plays in that game instead of letting the plays come to us and making the plays that were there.

"And I thought for the most part of last year, we did a really good job of that, and in that game we missed an interception fairly early in the game and it just seemed like we were pressing and guys played a little bit out of character instead of just doing their job with physical toughness and effort and some personality."

The same study was given to the way the Browns defense seemed to vary depending on whether or not the game was home or away. The statistics bore out that Jekyll-and-Hyde trend.

Seven of the nine times the Browns allowed an opponent to score at least 24 points in the regular season came in road games, including when Cincinnati scored 31 against almost exclusively backups. All four times a team scored at least 30 points, it happened away from home.

Opponents averaged 4.7 yards per rushing attempt in Browns road games, compared to 3.9 yards at home. They averaged 7.2 yards per passing attempt and quarterbacks had an 86.8 passer rating in road games, compared to 4.7 yards and a 64.2 passer rating at home.

"I don't think any of it excuses it or any of it explains it all away," Schwartz said. "It would be one thing to say, 'OK, well, we just had some really tough offenses on the road.' Well, that's true. But you have tough offenses at home, too.

"I think we're obviously still a work in progress there. It's on our radar, but we don't want to put it so much on a radar that we take away from what we did well and change the things that we did well."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jim Schwartz looks to add 'changeups' to Browns defense this season