Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken has left no question about his ability to design and manage an offense over the past few years. During his time with the University of Georgia and the Baltimore Ravens, he has led some of the most explosive offenses in each sport, which is exactly what the Browns need after multiple years of having the league’s worst offense.
However, being a head coach for the first time will demand a lot more of him. There are still questions about how he’s going to handle everything that comes along with his new gig, and one former quarterback recently raised a big question about Monken’s tenure.
During a recent episode of BIGPLAY Cleveland, Garrett Gilbert touched on all the things Monken is going to have to manage now that he’s a first-time head coach. He said he is interested to see how Monken handles play-calling duties while also having to delegate all the other things that come with the job at the same time.
“There are so many other things outside of playcalling that you have to manage as a head coach. To be able to do a good job of being a game manager and call the plays, you’ve got to be a master delegator. I’m interested to see how Todd can delegate that stuff while also being a playcaller. I think that will be one of the big question marks, is how that’s handled this year for the Browns,” Gilbert said.
Is Todd Monken ready to be a head coach AND call plays? #DawgPound
"To be able to do a good job being the game manager and calling plays you have to be a master delegator. This will be one of the big questions marks for the Browns."
– Garrett Gilbert https://t.co/WJaIh8K0aB pic.twitter.com/JWyexSVSWu
— BIGPLAY Cleveland (@BIGPLAYcle) September 2, 2026
There’s no way of knowing how Monken will handle all of this until he gets thrown into the fire in Week 1. Preseason is not indicative of how things will go, but it did provide some glimpses of what the offense might look like from a schematic perspective.
More motion and more explosiveness should be expected, but how will Monken handle things after the opposing defense adjusts late in the game? How will he handle two-minute drills? How will he handle injuries and pre-snap penalties and clock management in the last five minutes? Only time will tell.
Some analysts are already looking toward 2027, but there is a lot of work to be done this season. Monken has been adamant about building something the fans can be proud of and something that will last for decades after he is gone, and it all starts in Jacksonville next week.
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