If fate had worked out the wayNew York Giants head coach John Harbaugh had hoped, Todd Monken’s first public comments as they relate to football would have still been kept on ice.
That’s because instead of being the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Monken would have been the Giants' offensive coordinator, where his first comments of the new year would have likely waited until the team’s first practices later in the spring.
Instead, Monken was on the podium Wednesday morning at the NFL scouting combine to talk about the Cleveland Browns, though he did confirm that he was all set to join Harbaugh, who had been his boss in Baltimore, in East Rutherford had he not been hired by the Browns.
“I was hopeful that I would get the Cleveland Browns head coaching job,” Monken said. “That would be silly to say that I wasn't hopeful of that. But I was excited to go to New York with Coach (Harbaugh).”
Although Monken isn’t going to join Harbaugh, who in 2023 plucked Monken out of the college ranks where he had been the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Georgia Bulldogs, Monken is forever grateful for the time that he spent with Harbaugh in Baltimore and had nothing but praise for his former boss.
Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken confirmed that had he not been hired by the Browns, he would have joined John Harbaug
Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken confirmed that had he not been hired by the Browns, he would have joined John Harbaugh with the Giants. | Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
In particular, Monken said he admired Harbaugh for a particular way the Giants head coach communicates, especially if things aren’t quite going according to expectation.
“He's got a gift for confronting anything that gets in the way of winning football without being confrontational. It's unique,” Monken said.
“He doesn't let it linger. He'll come right down the hall and say, ‘This isn't good enough. What can we do to change it? What are we at?’”
Another Harbaugh quality that Monken mentioned he admired was his former boss’s consistency in staying several steps ahead of the opposition, particularly during the offseason when the coaching staffs of the upcoming opponents are buried deep in their labs dissecting every little inch of what they’re about to face.
Sign up to ourfree newsletter and follow us onFacebook andX for the latest news andsend your mailbag questions to us.
“No joke,” Monken said. “With John, it's football every day, man. ‘How are we gonna get better every year?’
“I was with the Ravens, and it was offense 2.0, offense 3.0. What are we gonna do to improve and take advantage of our players' skill sets? So he's just nonstop. He's about winning football.”