Todd Monken’s long-awaited debut as an NFL head coach could not have gone much worse. In fact, the Cleveland Browns’ performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1 was so bad that there is already talk that Monken won’t be around to see another season opener.
The embarrassing 34-10 loss was a failure at every level, particularly on offense, where Monken’s controversial hand-picked choice of quarterback Deshaun Watson backfired spectacularly. The veteran threw an interception on the fifth snap of the season, and the Browns defense allowed the Jaguars to score on six of their first seven possessions.
Entering a potentially embarrassing revenge game against Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler is not ruling out a worst-case scenario for Monken, although he said he expects the Browns to have a good enough record to avoid a one-and-done tenure.
“It’s tough in this league right now, if you have one of those seasons where it’s sort of point of no return and you’re sitting at 3-14 or something, it’s hard for these owners to stomach that. That said, I do think they’ll be better than that,” Fowler said.
"It's tough in this league right now if you have one of those seasons where it's sort of point of no return and you're sitting at 3-14 or something, it's hard for these owners to stomach that," – @JFowlerESPN on if Todd Monken could be a one-and-done HC. pic.twitter.com/4w9TmaVaBs
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) September 18, 2026
There is a very good chance that if Shedeur Sanders were the Browns’ starting quarterback instead of Watson, this would not even be a discussion. Sanders is likely to take over at some point, maybe as soon as Cleveland’s Week 3 home opener against the Carolina Panthers, but that would only reinforce the idea that Monken made a huge mistake selecting Watson in the first place.
Whether the 60-year-old longtime NFL assistant could survive that remains to be seen. There is also the idea that Monken is playing Watson at the behest of owner Jimmy Haslam, and in doing so, he may have already been guaranteed another season no matter how bad this one turns out to be.
But Haslam and the rest of the organization may not be able to stomach a series of games that looked like the one against the Jaguars. With rumors that the Browns are still considering giving Nick Saban a role in the organization, almost anything will be on the table throughout this campaign.
Every loss will move the Browns closer to the No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, but they also may push Monken closer to the door.
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