Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine has revealed that he was prepared to tell the club he couldn't accept the job if they took any longer in their decision making.

Pettine was hired on Thursday to replace Rob Chudzinski who was fired earlier this month after just one season in charge of the club.

After interviewing several candidates over 25 days the Browns finally decided that Pettine was their man, but the 47-year-old admitted that he was close to telling them he couldn't accept the job out of respect to the Buffalo Bills, who he didn't want to leave searching for a defensive coordinator in a short space of time.

"That was starting to wear on me these last couple of days," Pettine told WGR-AM 550. "I talked to Doug [Marrone] and it was getting to the point where I'd say, 'Hey, if this goes on much longer I need to pull out, because it's just not fair to the Bills.'"

Pettine spent just one season with the Bills after leaving the New York Jets in 2012.