At one point, teams around the NFL were looking for “the next Sean McVay.” After he became the youngest head coach in modern NFL history, he promptly made it to the Super Bowl and eventually won one with the Los Angeles Rams.
The Cleveland Browns may have approached their recent search with that in mind. They were believed to want a young, offensive-minded head coach, and finalists Grant Udinski and Nate Scheelhaase fit that description perfectly.
However, things didn’t work out for the Browns with either of those candidates, and they wound up hiring Todd Monken instead. As he’s about to turn 60 years old, the Browns can look to a different bit of history for some encouragement.
Insider Terry Pluto is comparing Monken to former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, who, as one of the oldest first-time NFL head coaches, eventually went on to win a Super Bowl himself.
“The Browns compare the 59-year-old Monken to Bruce Arians, who didn’t become an NFL head coach until he was 60. He had been a longtime offensive coordinator, including a stop with the Browns (2001-03). Earlier in his career, Arians’ only head coaching experience was at Temple University before being hired as an interim coach with the Colts. Arians was a head coach [for] 12 games in 2012. He then was the head coach at Arizona (2013-17) and Tampa Bay (2019-21). He won a Super Bowl with Tom Brady and had an overall 49-30 record,” Pluto said.
It took Arians three NFL head coaching stints and the surprising arrival of Brady to win that championship, but it still counts. It proves that coaching acumen and experience can be more valuable than youth.
Monken’s 37-year coaching journey has taken him to 10 states, with 13 different coaching roles on 13 teams. He likely could have finished his career as the offensive coordinator at the University of Georgia after helping it win back-to-back national championships, but he had bigger ideas in mind.
He left to become the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens with the goal of becoming an NFL head coach. In his three seasons, the Ravens had the best running game in the NFL, and quarterback Lamar Jackson played at an MVP level.
With the Browns, he faces a much tougher challenge. He must rebuild one of the worst offenses in the league without a true franchise quarterback on the roster. By comparison, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were coming off back to back five win seasons when Bruce Arians took over, but everything changed after Tom Brady replaced Jameis Winston. The result was a Super Bowl title in just his second season.
There may not be a QB of that level on the horizon in Cleveland, but that doesn’t mean that Monken can’t someday find similar success.
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