The pressure surrounding Todd Monken has been building since the moment he took the Cleveland Browns head coaching job, and with the 2026 NFL Draft just days away, the quarterback question hanging over the roster has only added more fuel to that fire. Some have suggested Monken is already on thin ice heading into his first season. One former player is not buying it.
Appearing on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, former NFL player Tyvis Powell pushed back hard on the idea that Monken is walking into Cleveland with no margin for error. The narrative that the new head coach could be shown the door after just one season drew a sharp response, and Powell made it clear he thinks the football world is getting a little carried away.
“We’re overexaggerating a little bit. It’s not like they’re going to fire him after one year. I don’t think that’s the case. I think that he wouldn’t have taken this job if he was going to get fired after one year.”
There is no chance that #Browns HC Todd Monken would have taken this job if he would be fired after one season.@1Tyvis says the current QB room has to be so good that Todd doesn’t even think he needs to get another guy.
▶️: https://t.co/b7BCs6r8FJ pic.twitter.com/K0QX9wyxnh
— Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show (@ultCLEsports) April 22, 2026
But Powell did not stop there.
“He has time to work with a guy. None of these is his guy. If you’re going to be a head coach, you always want your guy at some point. That is something that Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders, and Dillon Gabriel have to overcome. They have to be so good that Todd doesn’t even think that he needs to go outside to get another guy,” Powell said.
That is the real challenge sitting in front of every quarterback in that building right now. Monken did not recruit any of them. He did not pick any of them. Watson is a broken-down remnant of a failed era. Sanders showed flashes but has not locked anything down. Gabriel is a mid-round dart throw with plenty of questions still attached to his name.
None of them are Monken’s guy, and every single one of them knows it.
Monken likely is not going anywhere after year one. But the quarterback who wins this job has a real opportunity to change the entire trajectory of this franchise, and that starts with making Monken forget he ever wanted someone else.
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