After a long search for Kevin Stefanski's replacement, the Cleveland Browns are hiring former Baltimore Ravens and former Browns offensive coordinator Todd Monken to be the team's new head coach.
It seemed like the team would go with a young, up-and-coming offensive mind like Nate Scheelhaase or Grant Udinski, but ultimately decided on a veteran coach with decades of experience.
It seems like an odd hire and came out of left field; they seemed to strongly consider going with a young mind or promoting Jim Schwartz to head coach before a last-second curveball. Monken isn't a bad coach, but there isn't much long-term upside for a soon-to-be 60-year-old who has only been a college head coach before being hired as the Browns' head coach.
Here are five things you need to know about the new Browns head coach, Todd Monken.
Monken spent three years as the head coach of Southern Miss
Monken took over as Southern Miss's head coach after the team fired Ellis Johnson, who had led the team to a 0-12 season in 2012. It didn't go well during Monken's first season, when he went 1-11, but he turned the program around and led them to a 9-5 record in 2015.
Monken resigned after the 2015 season to take a job as the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL.
Monken won two National Championships as the OC of Georgia
After his one season as the Browns' offensive coordinator under Freddie Kitchens in 2019, he returned to the college ranks as the Georgia Bulldogs' offensive coordinator for three seasons from 2020 to 2022. He had a ton of success leading the Bulldogs' offense that averaged 32.3 points per game (2020), 38.6 points per game (2021), and 41.1 points per game (2022).
Georgia won the national title in both the 2021 and 2022 college football seasons while Monken was running the offense. The performance of the offense is even more impressive considering that Monken's starting quarterback for most of his time with the team was Stetson Bennett, not someone carrying the offense on their back.
Baltimore had one of the NFL's best offenses under Monken the last three seasons
First off, I know that having a special player like Lamar Jackson makes it easy to create a productive offense, but Monken helped to take it to another level overall.
The Ravens were one of the best scoring offenses under Monken and Lamar Jackson from 2023 until 2025. In 2023, the Ravens were fourth in the league with 28.4 points per game. In 2024, they were third in scoring with 30.5 points per game. This past season, they were 11th with 24.9 points per game.
Monken has over 30 years of coaching experience between the college ranks and the NFL
Monken's first job was as a graduate assistant at Grand Valley State in 1989. He got his first offensive coordinator job at Eastern Michigan in 1998. His first job in the NFL was as the Jacksonville Jaguars' wide receivers coach in 2007. He has been either an offensive coordinator or head coach every year since 2011.
Monken has shown he can adapt his scheme to fit his players and let them play to their strengths
When you look at Monken's track record, you will see that he's been successful with all kinds of different quarterback types. He is capable of tailoring his offense to the pieces and weapons at his disposal, rather than forcing players into a system that isn't best for them, which was an issue under Kevin Stefanski.
This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: Browns HC Todd Monken: 5 things to know about the new man in charge
