Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken was honest about what he wanted for this franchise when he was named the head coach earlier this year. He didn’t lay out the typical goals that you hear from most coaches, and while he obviously wanted to win games, he spoke about how he wanted to establish a culture and an organizational framework that lasts far beyond his years and turns the Browns into a team other teams want to emulate.
He is off to a great start in that regard, with only the downtrodden Tennessee Titans standing between his team and a 5-2 start. It has been one of the most shocking stories around the NFL and has made a lot of people look silly for criticizing the Monken hire in the first place.
NBC’s Cris Collinsworth raved about Monken’s performance during a recent appearance on the PFF NFL Show. He said that Monken is the obvious Coach of the Year so far for how well he has done getting this team to buy into his system.
“There’s no doubt who the Coach of the Year is at this point. No matter what you want to say about the Ben Johnsons of the world or whatever, this guy has taken something that could not happen. I mean, think of where the Cleveland Browns fan base was to start this season. I think that we’ve all been on that ‘Bad News Bears’ team at Little League where there was no hope, there was no chance. And a guy comes in and is kind of a grouchy guy, and he’s taking on everybody. He’s not afraid to challenge anybody. If the neighbors don’t like him, he doesn’t care. And then something happened with this team. They started having fun. They started believing. You’ve got all this weird momentum going on, and maybe it just goes away, right? But today, as of right now, there’s no doubt who the Coach of the Year is, and it’s Todd Monken,” Collinsworth said.
Monken has his quarterback, Deshaun Watson, potentially trending toward a Comeback Player of the Year award as well. This team’s disastrous quarterback situation had most fans believing this would be a bridge year until the 2027 draft, but Watson is playing by far the best he ever has since joining the team and has completely altered the trajectory of the team.
This team is playing hard and the vibes are high. Monken may seem like a bit of a curmudgeon to some, but he was seen dancing at practice yesterday and it becomes more obvious by the week that this team is getting on the same page and having a great time.
Watson is even embracing more of a leadership role and helping build chemistry off the field. There’s very little to complain about these days for Browns fans, and hopefully they can keep things rolling on Sunday.
NEXT: Analyst Says Browns Fans Must Accept One Fact About Deshaun Watson
