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Todd Monken’s no dummy.
The new head coach of the Browns knows how to exploit weaknesses on the football field. He proved that as offensive coordinator for the Bucs, Browns and Ravens before getting his shot in Cleveland this year.
As usual, the Browns are in disarray as they head into Raymond James Stadium for Sunday’s matchup.
If they aren’t the worst team in the NFL, the Browns are on the short list.
Cleveland doesn’t have many weapons to test a Tampa Bay defense that failed to make key stops at Cincinnati last week. But Monken might have a weakness to expose in an effort to spring a major upset.
He’s got a good tight end in Harold Fannin Jr.
Browns TE Harold Fannin, Jr.
As a third-round pick out of Bowling Green last season, Fannin led the Browns in targets, catches, receiving yards and TD receptions. He was one of the few bright spots on an offense that ranked 31st in points and 30th in total yards.
The Buc defense featured individual standouts in Week 1. Rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter enjoyed a sensational game while second-year corner Benjamin Morrison turned in a flurry of impressive plays filling in for injured Jacob Parrish.
And while Joe Burrow’s top targets, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, combined for only five catches and 71 yards, Cincinnati tight end Mike Gesicki found open seams all afternoon. For Todd Bowles, this continued a disturbing pattern for his pass defense.
Harking back to 2022, the Bucs have been routinely victimized by tight ends.
That season, opposing tight ends posted a 73 percent catch rate against Tampa Bay. In 2023, only two teams allowed more receiving yards by tight ends than the Bucs.
Things didn’t improve the following season, when tight ends caught passes at a 76 percent completion clip and only the Chiefs yielded more receiving yards at the position.
Surely last season had to mark an improvement, right?. Not really.p The Bucs allowed 12 TD catches by tight ends in 2025 — only the Bengals yielded more. Opposing tight ends were targeted 131 times and snared 100 footballs, a success rate of 76 percent.
Here comes Fannin, determined to rebound from a blowout loss at Jacksonville, where he caught only two passes for 21 yards.
“Oh, he’s a weapon,” says outside linebackers coach Larry Foote. “We’ve got to watch him. We’ve got to do a good job on him.”
Later in the season, the Bucs will face quality tight ends like T.J. Hockenson (Minnesota), Jake Ferguson (Dallas), Kyle Pitts (Atlanta), Colston Loveland (Chicago) and Sam LaPorta (Detroit). Pitts wrecked the Bucs last season by catching 18 of 20 targets in the two matchups, including three TD receptions during Atlanta’s comeback victory at Tampa that left Bowles and Mike Evans understandably distraught.
The Bucs should take care of business against the Browns. Almost everybody does. But instead of watching Fannin, who Bowles describes as “dangerous,” Tampa Bay defenders need to shadow him effectively.
He should be a marked man on Sunday afternoon, when opposing tight ends routinely come out to frolic vs. the Bucs.