CLEVELAND, Ohio — And then there was one.

One head coach vacancy left in the NFL that is, and it’s the Cleveland Browns.

The dominoes continued to fall on Tuesday, and by 10 a.m., the Panthers rocked the NFL world by announcing a blockbuster deal with former Baylor coach Matt Rhule, who declined an opportunity to interview with the Browns. Rhule, who met with the Panthers Monday in Waco, Texas, signed a seven-year deal worth $62 million, including incentives that could bring it $70 million.

About an hour later, the Giants, who were scheduled to meet with Rhule on Tuesday, dropped the bombshell that they had hired Patriots special teams coordinator and wide receiver coach Joe Judge, whom Bill Belichick had taken under his wing.

That left one vacancy in Cleveland, with the Redskins hiring former Panthers coach Ron Rivera the day after the season and the Cowboys hiring former Packers coach Mike McCarthy on Monday.

Suddenly, the Browns found themselves in a buyer’s market, with seven candidates vying for their vacancy and only one of their original eight off the table in McCarthy. Now they can take their time, not feel pressured and choose the best of the bunch, providing no one pulls out of the running.

The Browns have already interviewed four of their remaining seven candidates and have three more up this week in Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz on Wednesday, Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski on Thursday and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels on Friday.

McDaniels, the Canton, Ohio native and John Carroll University grad, was set to interview with the Panthers and Giants this week, but those options dried up before he got the chance. A source told cleveland.com that the Patriots didn’t give McDaniels permission to interviewi with other teams until later in the week while he completed Patriots exit interviews, which handicapped him in the race. He was believed to be a favorite of the Panthers before they refused to let Rhule leave town on Tuesday.

Stefanski, who was scheduled to interview with the Panthers on Thursday, was also believed to be high on their list. The top choice of Browns Chiefs Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta last year, Stefanski was passed over at the last minute by GM John Dorsey in favor of Freddie Kitchens, who seemed to have been a lock even before the search began.

This time around, DePodesta has another chance to land his man, and Stefanski will likely be a finalist. He’ll also likely be on board with the Browns’ desire to bring former Vice President of Player Personnel Andrew Berry back to Cleveland as GM at some point, Berry left the Browns about six weeks after Kitchens was hired to take over as Eagles’ Vice President of Football Operations, where he learned the GM ropes from Howie Roseman.

But it’s not a foregone conclusion that Stefanski, who “blew away’’ the entire search committee last year including Dorsey, will land the job. There’s also plenty of sentiment in the building for McDaniels, who interviewed with the Browns on two other occasions, in 2009 when he was passed over for his friend and fellow Patriots’ assistant Eric Mangini, and in 2014 when he took himself out of the running after an eight-hour interview because he wanted to remain with the Patriots.

The Browns are also intrigued by several other candidates, including Schwartz, who began his career as a scout with the Browns under Bill Belichick in 1993-95. Schwartz, who credits Belichick with his success in the NFL, was actually hired by former Browns GM Mike Lombardi, and was one of Belichick’s 20-20s in those early years in Cleveland — young scouts and coaches in their 20s who made salaries in the $20,000s or less. They were smart, hard-working young men, many of whom went on to great success in the NFL or at the college level.

Browns request permission to interview Jim Schwartz

Schwartz became a linebackers coach when the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996 and became the Ravens, and eventually worked his way up to head coach of the Lions from 2009-13, where he went 29-52 from 2009-13 with the Lions, including 0-1 in postseason.

Schwartz, 53, is one of two remaining candidates with head coaching experience, along with McDaniels, who went 11-17 in 2009 and part of 2010 with the Broncos, although Haslam said head coaching experience is not a prerequisite.

The Browns kicked off their interviews on Thursday with McCarthy, who was quickly targeted by the Cowboys when they decided to fire Jason Garrett. Later that night, they traveled to Baltimore to interview Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who will face the Titans in the divisional round on Saturday night. They interviewed Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on Friday, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh on Saturday in Santa Clara, Ca., and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll Monday in Cleveland.

A number of the interviews have gone very well, sources say, and the Browns are excited about their pool of candidates. Ideally, they’ll wrap up their search soon, but are comfortable letting it play out. If they have to wait for a coach in the playoffs, so be it. Three other candidates besides Roman are playing in the divisional round this weekend in Saleh, Bieniemy and Stefanski.

Some of the hiring will depend on the coach-GM pairing, because organizational harmony is a high priority for Haslam in this dual search, his fifth since 2012. The Haslam regime has been characterized by internal discord, and he’s “more determined than ever’’ to get it right this time.

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