The Cleveland Browns have finally wrapped up an exhaustive 23-day search for a new head coach and landed on former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken to help lead this team into a new era. Monken beat out Jim Schwartz and Nathan Scheelhaase to officially land the job, and now the focus can finally shift elsewhere as he fills out his staff and begins thinking about any personnel changes.
Monken has a long, decorated history across the NFL and college, but this will be his first chance as a head coach at 59 years old. By all accounts, many players and former colleagues speak highly of him, and that includes quarterback Jameis Winston, who overlapped with Monken when he served as the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2016-18.
Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan recently shared a thoughtful quote from Winston about his time with Monken. Browns fans will certainly feel a little better about this hire after hearing what Winston had to say.
“Todd Monken is a tough, exciting coach that believes in empowering his players. I am so grateful to see his hard work and dedication payoff with him being the head football coach for the Cleveland Browns. One inspirational quote and actually a mentality that Coach Monk invited our offense to adopt was, ‘Everything Matters’ and that obsession over every meeting and every play allowed us to have success. With his leadership and passion for every little detail will align perfectly with a hungry fan base who loves their team no matter what and an exciting young roster ready to make a difference in Cleveland,” Winston said, via Daryl Ruiter.
Former #Browns QB Jameis Winston on Todd Monken: “Todd Monken is a tough, exciting coach that believes in empowering his players. I am so grateful to see his hard work and dedication payoff with him being the head football coach for the Cleveland Browns. One inspirational quote…
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) January 29, 2026
That’s high praise from a quarterback who has worked with a lot of great coaches during his time. Monken’s experience and accomplishments are legitimate, and Winston is far from the only player who has nice things like this to say about him.
The leadership, passion, and attention to detail that Jameis spoke of are traits that this organization desperately needs after winning just eight games over the past two seasons. There are a lot of aspects of this franchise that need to be overhauled, and if Monken can bring some of this to Cleveland, he’ll stick around for a long time.
Firing Kevin Stefanski was a risky move, as he brought this team to heights it hadn’t seen in decades. It’s a big risk to hand the keys over to a career coordinator, but all signs point to Monken being up to this difficult task.
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