Ceiling/Floor: Cleveland Browns Hire Todd Monken As Head Coach

NFL

Thelesterlee
January 28, 2026
4 min

Welcome to Ceiling/Floor, where we dissect trades, signings, firings and hirings in order to determine the best case and worst case scenarios. Today, the Cleveland Browns hire Todd Monken as their new head coach.

The #Browns are hiring former #Ravens OC Todd Monken as their new head coach, per The Insiders.

After an exhaustive search, Cleveland lands on Monken, who previously worked with MVP Lamar Jackson. pic.twitter.com/qS6jk2TZlZ

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 28, 2026

Ceiling

I will almost always root for the guy betting on himself.

Monken could’ve taken the OC job with Harbaugh in Jersey—the crowd murmurs, no real, interesting, important discourse around the hire. Lazy Lamar/Dart comparisons, myself included, probably—but no real dissection of the hiring.

Monken could’ve lived in Harbaugh’s shadow but understanding this was most likely his final opportunity to become an NFL head coach, he ate the frog, called his own number and signed up to coach for the capsizing Cleveland Browns.

Todd Monken is walking in, day one, with a sense of urgency Kevin Stefanski lacked for years.

Stefanski’s starting to look like a potato, late, spirited nights, wondering why the team drafted a tiny QB in the 3rd, then a loud QB in the 5th. Kevin was running those practices like a recently divorced gym teacher at the end of the semester—rolling a ball out and sitting in his office, door closed.

Todd Monken just needs to show he actually wants to be there, and the team improves.

The Browns don’t need a sharp, innovative, dynamic offense to compete with Lamar, Joe and Aaron.

They have Myles Garrett.

Myles Garrett 23 SCK, 60 TKL, 3 FF Full Season Highlights.

Myles Garrett is now the NFL single-season sack record holder 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GanGtICZQx https://t.co/IRMeyDrbmJ

— Football Performances (@NFLPerformances) January 5, 2026

All the Browns offense needs to do is control the game.

In 3 years as Ravens OC, Baltimore finished 1st in rushing yards twice and 2nd in rushing last season.

Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, a far more formidable rushing battery than Deshaun Watson and Quinshon Judkins, but there’s more to a great rushing offense than the QB-RB. The Eagles finished 18th in rushing with Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley.

If Andrew Barry can resist the urge to draft 2 more middling QBs and uses his resources to acquire offensive line help, then Todd Monken is more than capable of building a rushing offense to keep Cleveland in every single ball game.

Floor

The last 60+ year-old, first-time head coach, David Culley, finished 4-13 with the Houston Texans in 2021.

Todd Monken is 60, his only previous head coaching experience 11 years ago, 2013-2015 at Southern Miss, 1-11 in his first year, 3-9 the second, 9-4 in the third, a bowl appearance, took an 0-12 program into college football relevance—immediately bolted to work for Dirk Koetter as the Bucs OC.

Their offense was fine. Nowhere near as good as when Bruce Arians and Tom Brady came the year after he was fired.

And like Arians and Brady, Monken’s only great offensive seasons were coaching 2-time MVP Lamar Jackson.

Oh, plus this:

After the Browns informed DC Jim Schwartz this morning they were passing him over to hire Todd Monken as head coach, Schwartz was visibly upset, said goodbyes in the building and told other coaches he’s not coming back, sources tell The Insiders.

Schwartz is under contract and… pic.twitter.com/GBEct9BRPB

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 28, 2026

Jim Schwartz, also realizing this was his final chance to become a head coach again, quit.

One of the best DCs, gone.

So Todd Monken has participation-trophy-winning Shedeur Sanders at QB and his Super Bowl-caliber DC rage-quit.

Can’t stress enough how he’s never coached an NFL team before and looks like the old man from Up in most photos.

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