Head Coach Todd Monken (10.26.26)

 

Todd, I know we talked a lot about Deshaun (Watson) yesterday after the game, but just wondering, have you had now a minute to process the fact that he actually has these five fourth-quarter game-winning drives, which leads the NFL, and that all of your victories have come that way? And how remarkable is that you guys are doing this late in games?

“I really haven’t. I mean, that’s really more of a narrative than what we talk about here, other than… I mean, the flip side is we haven’t started very fast. So, at the end of the day, we’ve got to start faster, and it’s all about this week. But I’m proud of Deshaun, the way he’s battled back in games at times and found a way to take us down the field and give us a chance for victory. And the whole offense in general, and there’s been times our defense has made big stops. It’s given us opportunities. But I really don’t think about it that way. I just think about, really, day to day. Like today, I was talking to the team about the game, and I was putting that to bed and making the corrections that we can make and then we’ll get on to Pittsburgh. And when they come in Wednesday, it’s, ‘How can we have the best Wednesday possible?”’

 

I know after the game you talked about the 4-3 that the Titans played was part of the reason you thought you ran it better, but what from your guys did you like better yesterday than you’ve seen previously in the run game?

“I just think we’re being more consistent with our game plans and our consistency there. Obviously, I think our players are starting to come together. The more they play together and practice together, I think the more we do the same things, you’re going to see more consistency. I think our guys are running off the ball with more consistency. And as I said, we’d gone against four down basically since I’ve been here, so we have a lot more familiarity with that style.”

 

And what was it about Quinshon (Judkins)? He seemed to me to look more explosive than he did even before he missed that game with the ankle. What’d you see out of him?

“Oh, we gave him places to run. It’s hard to look explosive when there’s nowhere to run. So, I thought we did a better job there because he is powerful. He’s hard to bring down if you can get him downhill, and I think we’ve been doing a better job the last couple weeks of that.”

 

I apologize, it’s very loud in the Nashville Airport. But I did want to ask you one question, Todd. There was a point in the third quarter where Jared Verse jumped offsides and then he was removed right after that play. I wonder, was that a regular rotation thing, or is that an accountability move on your part?

“A little of both. When a team’s backed up, the expectation is that they’re going to use double cadence. But I wouldn’t look too much into it. But did you enjoy your Sunday night in Nashville? I think that’s more important than really a guy jumping offsides and coming out of the game, is really, like, did the company… who paid for that extra night, as opposed to come back the same day? I mean, that’s pretty damn good deal, really, to be honest.”

 

Yeah. Well, we’re looking to come back.

“All right, good. I’m glad you’re getting back. You did give yourself time to sleep in, though.”

 

I want to ask you, kind of following up a little bit with Mary Kay (Cabot) on Deshaun and just the ups and downs on a game-by-game basis, within a game, of the performance. But what are you seeing from start to finish out of him? You talk about consistency and finding consistency and doing better to start. In what ways do you feel like he can improve in that area?

“Well, we all have to improve, starting with our play design, our game plans, how we execute, how we communicate to the players, what’s expected, what we think we’ll see. We’ve all been inconsistent, coaching and playing. He’s been a part of that as well, but certainly we can do a better job week to week at what we decide we’re going to run and how we’re going to execute it. And like I said, we’re all under construction. He’s under construction, we’re under construction, we’re always looking to get better, he can certainly play better, I can certainly coach better, our players can certainly play better around him. That’s a team thing, not just a Deshaun thing.”

 

Going into the fourth quarter, what is it about him that you think the guys have really… Do you feel like it’s just now a buy-in, that they prove a concept that, ‘Hey, we’ve seen him do it, we as a collective have done it,’ that they don’t see the fourth quarter as an obstacle?

“I think some of that is true. There’s only so much belief you can have without having the results play that out. That’s where belief comes from. In relationships, in life, that belief comes from a certain amount of trust. And so, I think there’s a part of that. I think our players have a belief in each other, and I think they’ve done a great job of playing the next play, irrespective of the score or what’s happened in the last series, last play, where we’re at in the game. I think they’ve done a very good job of that. I think that just happens to be one part of the game where we’ve made some plays at the end. We’ve got some really good skill players, and Deshaun’s let it rip.”

 

I wanted to ask specifically about that early play that ended in the interception. I know you and Deshaun both talked about it last night. The corner got inside leverage. Denzel Boston probably needed to beat that one out. And Deshaun was looking at Boston, though, throughout the play. When we were looking at it, it kind of felt like he had his eyes on him. Is that a case of Deshaun just going off of timing, or was there a way for him to maybe go somewhere else, away from Denzel Boston, if he saw that corner in front of him? What was that play? How did that play out?

“Well, it’s unfortunate because we got man coverage and the inside receiver got shut off, and we always have to cross-face there. Now, was it difficult with the release that Denzel got and the corner made a nice play of getting inside of it? Yes, but there would have been nowhere else to go. I mean, once we get man and we progress inside out, it’s going to go to the outside slant. We had the same thing as the Jets on third down, after we got the turnover and the ball got batted down and Deshaun won. Denzel won, excuse me. And so it’s one of those unfortunate things to where… and you can’t always say what the quarterback sees when he sits in the pocket. He may see the initial release, and he’s going to count on that receiver to break cross-face and be in that spot. And I’m not saying that the corner didn’t make a nice play, but we’ve got to fight to get to that spot before the corner does.”

 

Deshaun also said that Denzel came up to him. They had a conversation about it both in the game and then in the locker room. How much do you see that communication and the openness between your team helping as you guys are trying to grow and learn from maybe broken plays or things that just don’t simply work in a game?

“Sure. No, I think that is our job to create a collaboration. This is us. This isn’t me, this isn’t our offensive staff, this isn’t the players. It’s a collaboration. We all have to be on the same page. So, what’s being communicated is important, that we’re all on the same page. How we saw it. And it was just unfortunate that that happened. Sure, if Deshaun would have seen it, sure. I mean, it’s unfortunate. But if you’re going to throw the football, you’re going to throw an interception every now and then. That’s part of the price of doing business. You try to minimize that as much as you can. And it was unfortunate it was our own end. But no turnover is a good turnover, whether you’re driving going in for a score or you’re setting up the other team. But it’s something we will continue to work on and fight like heck to eliminate.”

 

Todd, the last touchdown run with Deshaun. How much does that help bump things up when the running game was kind of functioning as well as it was yesterday?

“I thought we did a great job with our auxiliary run game. I think it’s hard. If you’re going to try to get, say, anywhere to 130 to 150 yards, I think it’s really hard to get that on normal run plays. I think if you’re trying to be one of the better rushing teams, you have to have auxiliary yards, be it by a quarterback, be it by some of your skill players, multiple touches. You could count the screen game as a part of that. I thought we did a better job yesterday in the auxiliary run game, and Deshaun is a part of that.”

 

For a first-year program, like what you guys are putting out, how much does it build confidence and show, with all these close wins that you guys are getting?

“I think the one thing that you do get to enjoy is you get to try to improve with winning. There’s a lot of times where you have some of the mistakes we make and you’re losing, and luckily, we have found ways to win games. Our guys have kept fighting and they have not flinched. But it’s week to week. We know that in the NFL, if you play 17 games, there’s going to be anywhere from 10 or 11, on average, one-score games, and you’re fighting for margins, that’s all you’re doing. You’re fighting for margins that give you a chance to force the other team to play their best. And we didn’t do that in all phases yesterday. And I’m sure they’ll say the same thing that happens in every one-score game. The other team looks at that and says, ‘God, if we’d have just done this, this, this, this.’ And we’ll say, ‘If we’d have just done this, this, this, this,’ and it’s who shrinks those Browns hurting Browns moments that doesn’t force the other team to play their best. That’s your whole goal, and let our talent shine, let us play fast and force the other team to play their best.”

 

Have you all made a decision on Dillon Gabriel and Kalia Davis coming off IR?

“Have not.”

 

Okay, so what will, I guess, over the next 24 hours, what goes into the discussions? Is it purely a health discussion or is it more about the roster?

“Some of that is health. Some of it’s going to be roster management that Andrew (Berry) and I have to work through, and that’s part of, every team has to go through it. Whether it’s guys that are injured, guys coming off IR, guys on your practice squad. You’re constantly shuffling your roster to give you the best chance each week to, first of all, practice, right? To give you great looks, and then certainly for guys that you want to elevate or that you need at any given time each week in the games.”

 

So, quick follow-up again, with 24 hours until that decision needs to be made. Is it feasible, in your estimation, to keep four quarterbacks on an active roster when two of them really aren’t going to have a game-day role?

“Sure, it’s possible. Hell, it’s possible we’ll pick one more up and have five. Hell, I don’t know.”

 

On those slow starts in the first quarter, I think you guys have a -45 point differential in that first quarter. Is there a commonality here as to why you’re starting slow on both sides of the ball and unfortunately digging yourself early holes?

“Not really. I mean, I wish we could get it fixed. I mean, it’s not as if we’re not trying. I mean, offensively, after they scored, we had a holding call that basically kind of got us behind the chains a little bit, and then you throw the interception and that adds to it. But we’re going to fight like hell to fix it. That’s what we do. And it’s not ideal, but it is a 60-minute game, it just is. And part of that is also that we’ve at times chose to defer and we’ve put our defense out there, and that’s all part of it. And I don’t know if it’d be any different if we put the offense out there. We certainly have to scheme it, coach it and play better. I don’t feel like my pregame speeches have been that dull, you know, the last few weeks, to where we’ve come out of the tunnel not fired up, but I might have to change up the routine a little bit.”

 

What specifically though, defensively, because it feels like it’s a little bit of a Jekyll and Hyde. Defensively, you guys seem to be at your worst in the early stages of the game, and then as the game progresses, things get better on that side of the ball.

“Well, first of all, we’re going up against the best in the world. We’re talking about really good coaches, really good players. And whether they score the first drive or they score the fifth drive, they all matter. Some of it is in-game adjustments, some of it is the opening scripts that coaches go through. And certainly, we have not responded very well at the beginning of the game. I mean, there’s no way around it. We at least scored a touchdown in the first quarter, for God’s sake. So, we’re taking baby steps, that we actually scored a touchdown in the first quarter, a touchdown. But we just have to – and again, we’ve looked at it, and we’re going to continue to look at it. Certainly, have to find a way to start faster, but if it was that simple, we’d have it fixed.”

 

I know that Tyson Campbell helped bail you out of this, but I could see on the sidelines how incredibly upset you were about the 12 men on the field on the punt after the big stop there on (Tony) Pollard, huge defensive stop. Just how upsetting was that? And what can you do to kind of get those kinds of things cleaned up?

“Well, we failed in a lot of areas. We failed from a player’s perspective in terms of what group was on the field, and so we shouldn’t have 12 out there from a player standpoint. We failed from a player standpoint because our punt returner should be counting who’s in front of him, and if there’s 11, he makes 12. We failed from a coaching standpoint, where we have three special teams coaches, and we didn’t notice it. Okay, that’s going to happen. We’re human, okay? We’re just going to fight like hell for it never to happen again, because that was possibly a critical time in the game where we got a stop there. And, you know, Tyson did get the fumble out and whatnot, but that’s okay. I mean, I was frustrated at the time. Like, I get frustrated about a lot of different things, but we’re all human. And it wasn’t for lack of detail by our coaching staff or by the players. We’ve got players that are very diligent, and we just made a mistake, and now we fight like hell to not ever have it happen again.”

 

And then my second question is, with so many young guys on this football team, how do you kind of start to really prepare them for the intensity that they’re going to face when they go to Pittsburgh on Sunday? And with the magnitude of the game and everything, does that start right away?

“Well, today we’ll put the game to bed. We’ll look to make corrections because we certainly have a lot to correct. That’s what we control today. Today we control getting our bodies back after a hard-fought win yesterday, our guys staying off their feet, eating good food and hydrating, getting their mind right tomorrow to come in and have the best Wednesday possible we can have from the moment they arrive, how they handle meetings, how they handle getting their body right, how we go out to the practice field. That’s what we control Wednesday. You know, it’s fun to play at Pittsburgh. Got a great fan base. It’s a fun place to go play, man. It’s where you want to be. You want it to be loud. Means the game matters. So, I’ve got a lot of respect for that organization and being in the division. But all we’ll be able to control is how we finish today, how we go about tomorrow, getting our bodies back. And then our Wednesday preparation is really all we control, and it leads up to that, how we play.”

 

Todd, going off of that, the last time you guys faced off against Pittsburgh, there was some chippiness that went on at the end of the game, and then obviously Jared Verse had some pretty harsh comments to the Steelers after, in the locker room. How do you kind of guard against the emotions getting too high, where they play undisciplined, and how do you use it kind of as motivation for your guys?

“Yeah, good question. You know, I think if I go back to that game, which I don’t love doing, but it’s a divisional game, it’s against an opponent that has consistently won and played at a high level over an extended period of time, which is where we’re trying to get to. Where our consistency of play, consistency of winning, starts with drafting, developing and your roster. And so, yeah, the bottom line is they are a physical football team, and you have to be a physical football team as well. And that has to be a staple. It has to be your physicality, and your effort has to be what our culture is. It has to be when someone says, you know, ‘what is your scheme?’ I mean, what is your, you know… our style is that. It has to be that. Because I think that carries now. You’re exactly right. I mean, we can’t get to the point to where – because there were a few times in that game where we did go across the line, whether it was the quarterback, whether it was the physicality, whether it was personal fouls, and ultimately that’s Browns hurting Browns.”

 

I saw Mason (Graham) come back, but he limped off. How’s he doing?

“He’s doing fine. Yeah, it’s going to be sore for a while. I mean, he fought like heck to get back. I mean, it’s going to probably be a while to where he’s back to 100%, but the guy loves to play, loves his teammates. I mean, he did everything to get back even a couple weeks ago. So, I anticipate that it’ll continue to get better throughout the weeks, because he’s a warrior.”

 

Getting Maliek (Collins) on that extension, just how important is that from a team standpoint, and the fact that he wants to be here?

“Well, he earned it. I mean, let’s be real. I said it many times. Last year, I voted for him All-Pro. He fits the style we want to play. He fits as a man, who we want in this building, what he stands for, his work ethic. He says what he means, he means what he says. And he’s one of the quiet leaders on this team that, when he says something, it’s usually right on point. So, he’s earned that. I mean, the players that get paid what they get paid, they earn. They earn their salary based on how they play and the type of man they are and the warrior that they are, like I said about Grant (Delpit), like Maliek is that. And it’s a credit to him, and congratulations, he earned it. This was not given, this was earned.”

 

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