During the Cleveland Browns’ offseason program, Jim Schwartz talked about adding “changeups and some secondary pitches” in 2024, and defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson was catching what the NFL team’s defensive coordinator was pitching.

Schwartz and Tomlinson aren’t switching Cleveland teams and going to the American League’s Guardians. Schwartz used a baseball analogy to explain the Browns’ ability to field a more complex defense in his second season as Cleveland’s coordinator.

“We’re obviously in a different spot because we have a year in the system,” Schwartz said, “so I think what that affords us is the ability to work on more changeups. 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 the 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 we don’t have to work on the fastball. Now we can add different pitches. And you guys will get tired of my baseball analogies, but really that’s what it is. We don’t want to get away from the fastball, but it does give us a chance to work on some changeups and some secondary pitches and add to our scheme.”

The Browns have “things that we can get to that we purposefully held back a little bit last year,” Schwartz said, even though Cleveland yielded fewer yards than any other team in the NFL during the 2023 regular season.

“It’s always the game plan, especially when you’re in Year 2 in the defense,” Tomlinson said during the Browns’ mandatory minicamp. “You want to improve what you did the year before. Already knowing the whole defense and how coach Schwartz thinks and everything, and then what we all expect up front, we see the sky’s the limit, and we just have to improve on what we started. …

“When we see ourselves on the film now from the stuff we did last year, that’s the expectation. It can’t be below that standard, so we can start there and build on that.”

Tomlinson joined the Browns last offseason as a free agent for a four-year, $57 million contract. He joined Cleveland with Schwartz installing his wide-nine defense that depends on good defensive-line play.

Tomlinson said he thought the Browns got the hang of it as the season progressed.

“I felt like we started firing on all cylinders, and up front just disruptive,” Tomlinson said. “We were disrupting everything across the board week in and week out. And it definitely took a while because it was a brand new defense for me. With the help of the other guys, it started to click. …

“Last year was a new defense for a lot of us – like me. I never played in a defense like this until last year. A lot of us, it took eight to 10 weeks to actually get accustomed to the defense. And now since we’re already accustomed to it and most of us return, it’s just like we’re picking up running and adding more stuff to it.”

Even though Cleveland quarterback Deshaun Watson played in only the first six games of the season, the Browns posted an 11-6 record and qualified for the AFC playoffs. But Cleveland’s season ended in a 45-14 loss to the Houston Texans in a first-round postseason game.

“It always makes you hungry that you didn’t finish the year like you wanted to,” Tomlinson said. “It makes us way more hungry because I feel like everybody’s been making super sure that we can elevate every phase of our game up front, especially pass rush.”

A former Alabama standout, Tomlinson recorded 28 tackles, three sacks, four tackles for loss and 12 quarterback hits while playing 62 percent of Cleveland’s defensive snaps in 2023, his seventh NFL season.

The Browns most recently had consecutive winning seasons in 1988 and 1989. After going 9-6-1 in 1989 for its fourth consecutive winning campaign, Cleveland had a 3-13 showing in 1990 and has finished with a winning mark only five times since, so Tomlinson hasn’t seen complacency as a problem for the 2024 Browns.

“Last year doesn’t count,” Tomlinson said. “It doesn’t matter the stats we made last year, the record we had. We’re 0-0. We have to start over. Everybody’s starting at the same level playing field, so last year, complacency, it’s like it didn’t happen when we step on this field this year.”

Currently on its summer break, Cleveland is scheduled for its first day of work at training camp on July 24 at the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea, Ohio.

The Browns kick off their three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 10 against the Green Bay Packers and open their regular-season slate on Sept. 8 against the Dallas Cowboys.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.