The Cleveland Browns named Todd Monken their new head coach on Wednesday. He is the 19th head coach of the Browns and the 12th coach named since the team’s reboot in 1999. Cleveland went searching for their new field general after the team fired Kevin Stefanski after six rollercoaster seasons.
After a very lengthy coaching search that lasted almost a month by the organization, Monken was the surprise name announced this morning by the team. Some of you might be asking who is Todd Monken? Monken most recently was the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, where he’d been the last three seasons.
The Ravens recently fired their head coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh bolted to the New York Giants to become their head coach in recent weeks, and it was thought that Monken would join Harbaugh in the city that never sleeps but the Browns snatched him up to make him their new head coach.
Monken comes to Cleveland with knowledge of the franchise already as he served as the Browns offensive coordinator in 2019 when head coach(only coached one year) Freddie Kitchens had the job.
Monken is turning 60 in a few days (February 4th) and has a wealth of coaching experience. While most of that has been in offensive coordinator roles he did have a brief stint as the head coach at Southern Mississippi. He took a pretty bad program and managed to have a successful 3rd season there, getting his team to a 9-5 record and a bowl game appearance at the Heart of Dallas Bowl Game in 2015 against the Washington Huskies. They lost 44-31.
Photo via Imagn Images
The Illinois native and Knox College graduate, Monken returned to the NFL the following season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers new offensive coordinator until he moved over to Cleveland in the same position in 2019.
Photo via Imagn Images
After his initial stint in Cleveland, he ran back to the college ranks and helped the Georgia Bulldogs capture two National Championships between 2020 and 2022 as their offensive coordinator.
A return to the pros again happened in 2023 for Monken where he went to be the OC of the Ravens.
The longtime football coach is known for adapting his offenses to the skill sets of his players and isn’t locked into a particular offensive system. The Browns offense has been dreadful for several years and this hire of Monken is a way Cleveland and its front office thinks it can gain back some offensive momentum.
Time will tell. In the meantime, the other finalists in the Browns head coaching search that included current team defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, was notified that he wasn’t getting the head coaching job. Obviously upset with that news, it was reported by sources close to the Browns organization that Schwartz told other current Cleveland coaches in the building that he would not be returning to the Browns (He’s under a current contract with the team through next season). So, stay tuned on that part of the story.
In the meantime, Browns fans are trying to understand this decision by the organization. The Browns current General Manager Andrew Berry and owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam were at the heart of this coaching search.
The lack of transparency by the team over these last several weeks and going with an aging Monken instead of taking a different and more hopeful route such as hiring a young and upcoming coach like Grant Udinski (current offensive coordinator with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and only 30 years old or Nate Scheelhause, current passing coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams, and only 35 years old) has only added fuel to the fire for much of the fan base that is already upset with previous botched public moves (See Deshaun Watson trade).
As I said earlier, only time will tell with Monken. It’s a difficult position to begin with when you take the lead role as a head coach at any level let alone the NFL.
As a Browns fan, I’ll be supporting the new head coach and hoping he brings more glory back to this storied franchise.
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