{"id":722646,"date":"2026-02-02T00:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/722646\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T00:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:52:15","slug":"todd-monken-explains-why-he-left-uga-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/722646\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Monken explains why he left UGA football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated Feb. 1, 2026, 6:26 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">New <a href=\"http:\/\/ugawire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/bulldogs\/football\/2026\/01\/28\/browns-hire-former-georgia-offensive-coordinator-todd-monken\/88396422007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Browns coach<\/a> Todd Monken has been waiting a long time to become an NFL coach. At 59, Monken will finally get his chance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Monken will face a major challenge in Cleveland. The Browns have struggled to put together winning seasons and have had one of the NFL&#8217;s worst offenses over the past two seasons. Cleveland lacks a strong option at quarterback and is a tough place to win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Before Monken returned to the NFL as the <a href=\"https:\/\/ravenswire.usatoday.com\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a>&#8216; offensive coordinator from 2023-2025, he served as the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Georgia Bulldogs&#8217;<\/a> offensive coordinator from 2020-2022. He won a pair of national titles and an SEC championship during his tenure at Georgia under coach Kirby Smart.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:441px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/88190003007-1455361247.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Georgia Bulldogs offensive coordinator Todd Monken looks on before the College Football Playoff\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Why did Monken leave Georgia after so much success? Well, he was hoping to become an NFL coach and that dream has come true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;It&#8217;s surreal,&#8221; Monken said on finally becoming one of the 32 NFL coaches. &#8220;I mean, it is everything you work for your whole career. It&#8217;s the whole reason I came back to the NFL. The reason I left Georgia. (To) Give yourself a chance to be a head coach in the NFL (to) be one of the 32 (head coaches).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Monken on why he left Georgia, becoming an NFL coach<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Monken and the Browns do have a lot of draft capital to try to turn around the franchise.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/87430383007-2247395695.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Follow UGA Wire on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ugawire\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.com\/@ugawire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Threads<\/a> for more college football coverage!<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Feb. 1, 2026, 6:26 p.m. ET New Cleveland Browns coach Todd Monken has been waiting a long&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[95878,86,85,54,2337,7,6,99667,96358,95882,96027,98628,95896,96097,95897,95884,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-722646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-browns","tag-accessfree","tag-browns","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-clevelandbrowns","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportscollegebulldogsfootball","tag-sstsnfootball","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagkirby-smart","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagncaa-southeastern-conference","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsports-coaching-training","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115998303656284937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}