Head Coach Todd Monken (5.9.26)

So, can you just kind of wrap up sort of how happy you’ve been with the efficiency, the talent level, the size, just basically what you can see.

“Well, you couldn’t had a better day. I mean, first off today, it’s always awesome to get on the grass with your players. I mean, how cool is this? You have the guys that we drafted along with the free agent signees, and then a bunch of tryout guys that are trying to make our team – want to be a Cleveland Brown, which is really cool. I think efficiency wise; the guys handled the installs over the last couple days at a really high level. They’ve got a coach, be coached mentality, which you love to see guys that want to be coached, want to be pushed. And so it’s been a lot of fun.”

 

Todd, toward the end, you had that helmetless period, but you kind of gathered them together beforehand. What was sort of the message you were trying to impart there?

“Well, it’s an ACT period, which means alignment, communication and technique – more of a mental sweat. And I get it. When you’re in a competitive environment, it’s hard to get players to what, tone it down. And we’d had three of those periods previous, including yesterday, and none of them were really at the tempo that I desired. So, it was really poor on my part to allow it to keep going. But really at the end, it’s more of a jog through, again, a mental sweat. Alignment, communication, technique – really trying to tax our guys. Because at the end of this, the goal at the end of the minicamp is to make it out healthy. And I wanted to make sure of that.”

 

Todd, I know we talked about your desire to have a fullback. You went and signed a veteran. Do you see either the two tight ends that you drafted, Carsen (Ryan) or Joe (Royer) as potential fullbacks?

“I think they’re going to have to work there, and we’re going to have to work some of the other guys we have on our roster, but we don’t know that yet. Really hard in shorts. Obviously, Mike (Burton) been in the NFL for a number of years, has a great feel for how to fit certain runs, how it’s going to play out. He certainly got that, which we saw. We wanted to sign him. But when you rep a number of groups, you’re going to have at least two other guys that have some feel for playing the position.”

 

Why do you think that position is so, I guess, important to what you’re trying to do?

“Well, I think it’s funny how the game evolves. It goes from under center, pro style, downhill run and then high school football changes, college changes, more spread. You don’t see the old Mike linebackers, fullbacks, right? There’s no Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke’s out there anymore playing Mike linebacker. You don’t have fullbacks, you can’t find them, air raid wise. But you start to see this year the number of tight ends that went higher in the Draft, starting to see more and more teams to calm down defenses to get what – more bigger bodies, tight ends, fullbacks, to create gaps; helps your play action game as well. So, I just think that the game is always evolving and I think it’s kind of turning back.”

 

What have you seen from Eman (Emmanuel McNeil-Warren) in these first two days of the rookie camp?

“Well, what you guys see, which is long, fast, anticipating, being physical, got unbelievable range again. He’s another one of those guys that has a smile on his face every day, loves football. It’s what we saw when we met with him at the Combine, when he came here. Like I think the sky’s the limit. He wants to be an elite football player, and he goes about it the right way every day.”

 

Todd, when you were in Baltimore, obviously it wasn’t your side of the ball, but you guys had a safety, Kyle Hamilton, that could do a bunch of different things. How valuable is it to have that sort of player in that position?

“Well, I wouldn’t say Kyle started that because there’s been a number of guys his size that enables you to be able to play dime and kind of have the size of a linebacker but have the ability to cover. Kyle could gain 10 or 20 pounds and play Will linebacker if he wanted to. A lot like the young man that’s from South Carolina at the Seahawks. Very similar kind of a hybrid position that allows you to do a number of things with them. Like any player that can do a number of things – the young man that plays for the Niners, the fullback, he can do a number of things. Not just a blocking fullback, they can spread him out, he can catch the football. Very versatile. I think the more versatility you have in your position groups; I think you can keep those guys on the field and move them around as chess pieces. I think it’s something we’re looking forward to try and figure out where we can utilize him.”

 

Todd, it seems like Justin Jefferson has been…you can hear him out there being very vocal out there at linebacker. You know, the way he’s sort of taken on almost seems like a leadership role early on in this camp. I know it’s way early to say that, but it seems like he’s kind of grabbing that position and trying to do as much as he can with it.

“No, it’s not hard to see the guys that love football, is it? It’s pretty simple. You show up to practice, you guys are looking the same thing I’m looking at, right? Quincy Williams, he’s been here, what, a month? And you can tell he loves football. You can see that with JJ (Justin Jefferson), can see a guy that loves to play football, comes in the building ready to go. He’s jocked up, ready to go. I love that about guys and you can just see it. You can just feel it. You can feel the guys when you come out to the practice field, they’re ready to go, the music’s going, they’re fired up and those guys are fun to coach.”

 

We’re going to talk to Denzel Boston today. And I know you mentioned him a little bit yesterday, but just these two days, what has he shown you?

“Well, you can see his catch radius. That’s what you can see. He does have quick feet. Getting off the line of scrimmage, you can see that. Again, does a really good job getting in and out of breaks for someone with his length. It’s hard because with a couple ACT periods where you’re not really throwing it, guys don’t really get a ton of opportunities like today, really him and KC (Concepcion) didn’t get a lot of opportunities, which is just fine. But seeing him move around, you can really see his skill set.”

 

When we talked to Taylen Green after we talked to you yesterday, he said footwork was a big focus of his. Doing it in hotel room, doing it individuals as a coach, what are the couple of spots you say early, this is where he needs to get better?

“Well, first thing was as you talked about footwork – cadence – getting used to our cadence, early on, and he was better today, but this morning and yesterday, choppy with his cadence. So just getting our guys into a rhythm at the line of scrimmage, I think that was the second thing he needed to work on. He did a nice job today of working through his progressions. I did like that part of it. We’re gonna have to be really diligent in trying to tighten down his release. When you’re talking about check downs taken from as long of his release or long release he has, to really just being able to dart it to get it quickly out of his hands into the hands of whether it’s a running back or a tight end. But I’ve been super impressed with his ability to really learn, process and take it to the field and then getting through his progressions, really impressive.”

 

Do you recommend a quarterback guru that you would like these guys to sort of work with?

“We’ve had guys that if they’ve asked but in today’s day and age it feels like everybody’s got one. They’ve got a quarterback coach they like to go to, which is great. I think the game has improved greatly with whether it’s offensive line tutors, as I would say, or wide receiver tutors or quarterback guys. I think just over the last 10 or 15 years, even when I was at Georgia and you’d see younger players come to summer camp and how much better they are at throwing the football and receiver route running. And that’s a credit to those that work with guys when we don’t have an opportunity to work with them, which stinks. I wish we got them year-round, but we don’t. And it’s awesome that our guys want to go to those guys and improve.”

 

We saw Austin Barber at right tackle for really the duration of rookie minicamp, when you guys break out into OTAs with all the guys, do you plan on keeping them there or will you kind of move them around?

“Well, we’ll see how that all works out. I mean, for the purpose of rookie minicamp, we’re going to put him at tackle. We think long-term, he’s a tackle, but we’re certainly going to give him an opportunity. He’s gonna have to be a swing player. He’s gonna have to be able to learn tackle, and we’re gonna have to see what we have at guard and everything will play itself out. Parker (Brailsford) at center, right. Elgton (Jenkins) at center – how that’s gonna play out. Some of the other guys that we have, Kingsley (Eguakun) and Kendrick (Green) that are here along with then, okay, Tytus (Howard), right. So, all that’ll play out. It’s just I like where we’re at because we’ve got more pieces to work with. You know, it gives you options, right. It’s not advantageous to not have many options. So, through the draft and through free agency, I think we’ve really addressed with three draft picks and three free agents, really addressed a real position of need. All right. Go Cavs.”