{"id":738445,"date":"2026-02-08T17:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/738445\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T17:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:10:15","slug":"what-is-todd-monkens-biggest-job-as-new-browns-head-coach-terry-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/738445\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Todd Monken’s biggest job as new Browns head coach? – Terry Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 Wow!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I thought when I heard Browns owner Jimmy Haslam talking about the feedback he received from some of the players after coach Kevin Stefanski was fired. <\/p>\n

\u201cJW (Browns managing partner JW Johnson) and myself interviewed 30 or 40 players in the postseason \u2026 We got really good feedback offensively and defensively about what was needed,” Haslam said. <\/a><\/p>\n

So far, nothing extraordinary there. But then Haslam added:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of us who have run organizations understand you have to have accountability. And as I mentioned when JW and I interviewed or spent time with 30 or 40 of our players. If you said, \u2018Give me one common word,\u2019 it\u2019s that we need more accountability. So that stuck with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe Haslam mentioned this more as an endorsement of new coach Todd Monken. Yes, Monken is being hired to revive the almost comatose offense. But he also is in Cleveland to \u2026 well \u2026 hold players more accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to hold the players accountable for what they say their dreams and aspirations are,\u201d Monken said at his press conference.<\/a> \u201cYou have to find out what you really want, individually with your career, and then what you want collectively as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting approach. All coaches talk about winning. So do the players. But players also have personal concerns. Part of coaching is lining up the aspirations of the individual players with the team goal of winning. It\u2019s convincing players that winning will pay off for them individually.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you\u2019re doing is holding them to what their goals and aspirations are \u2013 as people did for me,\u201d said Monken. \u201cI am who I am because my parents did that for me. They didn\u2019t do that to me \u2026 They did that for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ClevelandBrowns Owner Jimmy Haslam said many players told him the team needed more “accountability.”John Kuntz, cleveland.comAccountability needed<\/p>\n

Most Browns fans would agree the team sometimes lacked discipline. Pre-snap penalties were a problem during the Stefanski regime.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m dwelling on the pre-snap penalties because those are violations such as false starts, illegal formations, too many players on the field and too much time before snapping the ball. It\u2019s a lack of concentration and attention to detail:<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where the Browns ranked in pre-snap penalties under Stefanski. <\/a><\/p>\n

2020: Second.<\/p>\n

2021: Third. <\/p>\n

2022: 19th.<\/p>\n

2023: First.<\/p>\n

2024: First.<\/p>\n

2025: Ninth. <\/p>\n

The Browns were in the top three of pre-snap penalties in four of Kevin\u2019s six seasons. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if Monken and his coaching staff can address this problem.<\/p>\n

I looked at where Baltimore ranked in pre-snap penalties during Monken\u2019s 3-year tenure as offensive coordinator. In his three seasons, they ranked 17-22-20 in pre-snap penalties. That\u2019s below average, which is good. <\/p>\n

Not all of that was due to Monken, because he was only in charge of the offense. But it is good to know the Ravens weren\u2019t at the top of the list. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen two Browns coaches immediately improve the team in these areas.<\/p>\n

The first was Eric Mangini in 2009-10 after he took over from Romeo Crennel.<\/p>\n

The other is Gregg Williams, who was the interim coach in the middle of the 2018 season after Hue Jackson was fired. Williams and Mangini were both tough and demanding on the little things such as pre-snap penalties. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody likes honesty till they don\u2019t like what\u2019s said to them honestly,\u201d said Monken. \u201cI\u2019m no different. I like being stroked in a good way. \u2026 I don\u2019t like the other side of it, but that\u2019s how I\u2019ve gotten a lot better. And the people who love you the most are going to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was difficult to know how Stefanski dealt with problems because his goal in the press conferences was to say absolutely nothing in a nice way. The man took the Browns to the playoffs twice (2020, 2023) and was NFL Coach of the Year in both of those seasons.<\/p>\n

When Stefanski was fired, several NFL teams looking for coaches connected with his agent. He interviewed with five different teams. There were 10 openings. John Harbaugh (New York) was the first new coach hired. Stefanski became the second as he went to Atlanta. <\/p>\n

That said, in the last two years, the Browns were 8-26. My personal opinion was Stefanski was worn down by dealing Deshaun Watson and other problems surrounding the Browns in his six seasons. When that happens to a leader, accountability sometimes slips. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if Monken can change that.<\/p>\n

\"ClevelandCan new Browns coach Todd Monken make the Browns “watchable”?John Kuntz, cleveland.comCan they be watchable?<\/p>\n

A year ago, Haslam was asked how many games the Browns would win in 2025. He paused, then said, \u201cMore than three.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Browns were 3-14 in 2024. It was \u201cmore than three,\u201d as the Browns were 5-13 in 2025. Haslam knows that ineptitude is crushing the fan base. GM Andrew Berry talked about how the Browns<\/a> were likely to have \u201cone of the youngest teams\u201d in the NFL. At another point, he said they could be \u201cthe youngest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rarely do young teams win a lot, but things have to improve. <\/p>\n

\u201cDo I expect we\u2019ll win more games? I do,\u201d Haslam said. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019ll have a better football team. We\u2019re not going to be ugly to watch, OK? And I actually take that seriously. We want it to be a fun team to watch, a team that plays hard, plays smart and most of all, wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haslam also mentioned my name as he said, \u201cWhat does Terry say? They\u2019re ugly to watch sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I actually called them \u201cunwatchable\u201d at times, but the point is the same. The Browns have scored the fewest points in the NFL over the last two seasons. <\/p>\n

Part of hiring Monken is to improve the offense. And yes, to make the Browns more watchable. <\/p>\n

Part of that will also mean being more accountable in terms of eliminating mental errors on the field. That will be a challenge with a young roster. That\u2019s why Monken was hired, to bring more discipline to the Browns. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 Wow! That\u2019s what I thought when I heard Browns owner Jimmy Haslam talking about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[94863,94864,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-738445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-2025-2026","9":"tag-cleveland-browns-2025-2026","10":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116036123190726365","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738445","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=738445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}