Todd Monken Knows Browns Must Eliminate Distractions To Win Games Soon

New Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken is officially leading the team.

The Browns reported to Berea earlier this week for the first portion of the voluntary offseason program. Even though the team isn’t able to practice, Monken is hosting meetings and the team is able to workout together in informal capacities.

On Wednesday, Monken shared his first message to the team with reporters.

“We’re in the development business and the winning business,” Monken said. “Anything that gets in the way of those two things has to be confronted and eliminated.”

Since the team returned in 1999, plenty of distractions have dragged the Browns down from a once historical football franchise to the laughing stock of the NFL.

Monken saw that firsthand in 2019, when he worked as Cleveland’s offensive coordinator in Freddie Kitchens’ lone season as the head coach of the Browns. In that year alone, the Browns were trying to develop Baker Mayfield in his first full season as an NFL quarterback while dealing with the high profile celebrities that were Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry, being taken off of the field for wearing clown-painted shoes and luxury watches that conflicted with the NFL’s uniform policy.

That year, the Browns cut a starting wide receiver, Antonio Callaway, the afternoon before a Thursday Night Football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers where the team’s top player, Myles Garrett, received an indefinite suspension for swinging Mason Rudolph’s helmet and hitting him in the head.

Kitchens was photographed wearing a “Pittsburgh started it” t-shirt that added to the distractions.

With an extremely talented roster, the Browns only won six games and Kitchens was fired along with the entire staff, including Monken, due to the incompetence of the entire year.

2026 can’t be a repeat of 2019

Monken is convinced that he will oust anything that interferes with winning in 2026.

The Browns continue to repeat that they aren’t rebuilding. Their moves don’t reflect that they are rebuilding, either.

The team hired a first-time head coach who is 60 years old. Their first move, before free agency, was trading for a 30-year-old starting right tackle, Tytus Howard, who was handed a three-year extension. They added other veterans Zion Johnson and Elgton Jenkins in free agency.

Even though the Browns reworked Myles Garrett’s contract, Browns general manager Andrew Berry has remained adamant about not trading the back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year.

The Browns don’t have a concrete answer at quarterback. But they have plenty of young talent from last year’s successful draft. They still have nine draft picks to finish rebuilding the offense. If Monken can continue to develop young players and eliminate distractions, the Browns will be a lot closer to contention.