Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken.
Getty
Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken.
Todd Monken wanted to look the part for his first NFL head coaches photo. Things didn’t go as planned.
The Cleveland Browns first-year head coach explained Tuesday how he wound up missing the annual group photo at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix.
“Browns head coach Todd Monken solved the mystery on Tuesday of how he missed his first NFL head coaches group photo,” Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com said. “Monken was actually getting a haircut expressly for Monday’s photo, which is supposed to feature the coaches from all 32 teams.
“He thought he timed it up perfectly, because the photo was scheduled for noon Pacific time. It was even written on the agenda that way.”
The problem? The photo was moved up, and Monken was still in the chair. The result was a photo with 30 of 32 coaches present — Monken and Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay were the two absences.
Monken Is in His First Year as an NFL Head Coach
Monken was hired by the Browns in January after three seasons as the Baltimore Ravens‘ offensive coordinator. It’s his first NFL head coaching gig but he brings more than three decades of coaching experience to Cleveland. It includes stints at the University of Georgia — where he won back-to-back national championships as the offensive coordinator — and a previous tour with the Browns as offensive coordinator in 2019.
When he was hired, Monken didn’t hide from the fact that the Browns turned to him to revive the anemic offense in Cleveland.
“There’s a reason why I was hired here,” Monken said in February. “Let’s not kid ourselves. I was hired to become elite on offense and that’s what we’re going to fight every day to be, and I’m fired up because I think we have a chance to really take off. I think the time is right now to take off and really build it the way you want, so you’re consistently competing for championships.”
Browns QB Situation Most Important for Todd Monken
The most significant decision facing Monken will come at quarterback. Cleveland is set to hold an “open competition” between Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson and Dillon Gabriel. But while each signal-caller will have a chance to earn reps and make a push for the starting job, the opportunities won’t be distributed evenly.
“I don’t anticipate them being divided evenly,” Monken said on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t say they’re going to be evenly dispersed, but we’ll definitely disperse them to give ourselves a chance to at least evaluate who we have on the roster, whoever that might be as we go through the offseason.”
It’s a similar situation to what the Browns set up last year. The Browns were adamant that all four quarterbacks — Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco, Gabriel and Sanders — had a shot at the starting job. However, Sanders did not get first-team reps and was never truly in the mix.
But this time, Sanders appears to be the front-runner heading into the offseason program. Monken said reps will be broken up by “basically what we’ve seen in the past and where the year ended last year.”
Sanders started the final seven games last season. He went 3-4, passing for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Monken has said he’s been impressed with Sanders’ playmaking ability and noted that he’s more mobile than he thought previously.