Head Coach Todd Monken (6.3.26)
Well, Todd, first of all, can you comment on the big news of the week with Myles Garrett obviously being traded and Jared (Verse) coming in?
“I don’t think there’s any reason for me to comment. I thought Andrew (Berry) addressed it yesterday, and we’re excited to have Jared here. I don’t think there’s anything more that needs to be said. We’re excited about Jared for our team now and the picks for our future.”
Todd, Andrew said that Jared, he feels like he’s a DNA fit for the defense. How do you guys see that with what he’s done so far?
“100%. I mean, a guy that goes all out every snap. I mean, he’s gonna fit us like a glove.”
With obviously stepping into where Myles played, it seems like it comes with a lot of pressure for Jared. Do you have to tell him just to be himself?
“I don’t see it that way. Just be yourself. There’s only one of you; Myles is already taken. And he’s an elite football player. We all know that. I mean, to say that – Jared, just be you. I mean, I see his track ascending, I just do. I just see a world of upside by the way he’s wired. We’re jacked to have him.”
Are you going to hold him out of the team until minicamp?
“We’ll see day to day how he feels, would love to be able to do that. We got one more tomorrow and a little team competition Friday, but whenever he’s ready, we’re going to let him go.”
How familiar were you with Jared in your time in Baltimore, game planning against him?
“We played him last year, obviously, he was one of those guys where you certainly had a game plan for and I think he’s only going to continue to ascend.”
Just how beneficial is it that he at least gets to catch a little bit of the offseason program instead of being dropped in during the dead time between off season and training camp?
“No, it’s awesome. You wish you had unlimited time to meet with him and try to catch him up to speed. But just his willingness to get here, be here this morning to get into meetings and be on the practice field says a lot about him.”
What was his attitude when you met him face to face?
“Oh, he was jacked. He was fired up. I mean, who doesn’t want to be wanted – we wanted him. That’s the way it is.”
Just in terms of team pass rush, I mean, do you think maybe you guys will be able to spread it out more and spread the wealth and all the dogs will eat?
“It remains to be seen. I mean, we still expect the guys that we have on the roster to continue to develop because we’re still a young football team and Jared just jumps right in there.”
Do you have to address the team in any way after trade a guy? He’s been really the face of the franchise for almost a decade.
“Andrew addressed the team yesterday.”
What was the overarching message?
“Well, the message was that the opportunity came about for us to acquire Jared Verse and some future capital.”
Todd, Jared has been labeled as a vocal leader. How important is that to a football team?
“Well, it’s important. It’s going to take time, obviously, a new player, but you like guys that have juice, you like guys that are vocal, like guys that like to come out and practice. We’ve seen it with Quincy (Williams), you see it every day, so we’re excited.”
Do you feel as the head coach of the team, you’re relieved that position is settled now? You know what you’re heading into the season with?
“Well, are you talking about like defensive end? Well, I thought it was settled. I mean, not at any given point did I think were going to trade Myles. That’s just the nature of what we do. I mean, this is pro-sports, right? You’re always trying to look to the present and then to the future. So, I was excited then and I’m excited now.”
Todd, he’s played outside linebacker, played at Florida State in college. How much does that background kind of help in terms of what you could do with him schematically?
“I think it remains to be seen. I mean, once our defensive guys gets their hands on him, I think we’ll have a better idea. But certainly, his tape speaks for itself. I mean, being a Defensive Rookie of the Year and then a Pro Bowler. How many guys have done that? It’s a pretty elite group he’s in.”
Todd, I was going to ask about the fact that he’s Defensive Rookie of the Year, a former one. Carson (Schwesinger) obviously won that last year. What about just pairing those two guys together in this defense?
“No, I think when you put together Grant Delpit, Denzel Ward, Tyson Campbell, Carson, Quincy, the guys up front, Maliek (Collins), I’m going to miss some guys. Mason Graham, you got Jared (Verse), you got Alex (Wright), Isaiah (McGuire), I’m going to miss guys. Mike Hall, all those guys. I mean we are a very talented football team. I mean we are. We’re a talented team on both sides of the ball.”
Today, I think (Spencer) Fano was with the ones all period. Is that a new development?
“He was there yesterday and today.”
Todd, can you talk about that really nice touchdown pass from Shedeur to Isaiah (Bond) in the two-minute drill. What was your reaction and your thoughts on that?
“Well, I mean it’s a piece of the practice, right? It’s a piece of the practice. I think Isaiah Bond has come on the last week and a half as a player. He’s still a developmental player. Shedeur’s really come on. I thought he had a really good day today. I thought Deshaun (Watson) had a good day today. And so, I thought both of those guys continue to compete. And you saw today we’ve been alternating those guys. You’re just not out here every day to see it. It just happened today – you were out here and Shedeur got a lot of work with the ones.”
Travis (Switzer) talked about how he saw an improvement in the urgency in Shedeur’s footwork. So, is that something you identified when he came over and then how do you go about getting him to improve that?
“I think some of that was some of the decision making. I think speed up moving through his progressions. I think the more reps you get, the more comfortable you get in progressing. Before the touchdown pass, not so good. He started to back up in the pocket – really probably would have been a sack. We let it play out. So again, he’s still a young developmental player that I think has come a long way. And I think he’s got a huge upside.”
Couple weeks ago I know Deion Sanders mentioned that he wants to meet with you, sort of give you a lay of the land on Shedeur, is that you’re planning on doing at any point? And what are the benefits to actually having the conversation?
“First of all, I can’t wait. I, first of all, got a lot of respect for Coach (Deion) Sanders, obviously as a player, but also what he’s done as a coach and obviously, he’s done a great job with Shedeur as a father. I’m open anytime he wants to meet. He said he was going to come, but he had a commercial. So, if he just lets me know where the next commercial shoot is, I’ll be there. I’ll show up. I really am looking forward to it. I got a ton of respect for him, and I got a ton of respect for Shedeur because all he’s done since I’ve been here is work. That’s all he’s done is compete. He was here early in the off season. Hell, he bought me a horse head. I mean, tried to, you know, cheese up to me early which is really cool. So, it’s been great.”
And you have Tytus Howard here. I think that’s the first time we saw him on the field. Has he been here this week?
“He’s been here. He’s had some, unfortunately, a couple of family issues he’s had to take care of, which can happen. You get some older players that are married and have kids and families. It happens. So, he’s been great.”
Now that you have Fano with the ones, is it (Parker) Brailsford, is he trending to it or is that going to take time?
“We’ll still have to see that. We’ll have to see. We’ll let it compete. It’s very hard up front till we get the pads on. We really aren’t even there yet. Like, we won’t even get there until you’re five days into camp. Hell, we’ve got next week without pads – five, six weeks till they come back, and then we have a week without pads. And then you guys will be out here. You’ll get to see it. You’ll see where we are at from a physicality standpoint, get to the preseason games, see how those guys handle it. But we’re excited about all of our young players.”
Todd, back to Jared for a second. He’s obviously coming from a 3-4 into a 4-3. Do people make maybe too much of a big deal out of like the differences in those two systems in terms of trying to make an adjustment to play the opposite?
“Well, there are certain aspects that they’re going to ask – I think it’s easier to play to 4-3 than it is to be a 3-4 outside backer and then be asked to be an edge rusher in a four-down nickel. That’s my opinion. What do I know? Okay, but I’m just saying I think that this will allow him to do one thing and that is run off the ball, run into a dark room and disrupt. Can’t wait to see it.”
You have said you’d like to have your number one (QB) by the start of camp. Would you also like to have your number one offensive line configured for the start of camp?
“Would love to. Actually, both are great questions. In a perfect world, you’d love to have your starting quarterback, right? And you’d love to have your O-line set. I’m not sure we’ll be there, I’m just not. I think both quarterbacks have played well enough where we haven’t really been in pads. We haven’t played any games yet. Haven’t really got to that point yet. Every day I kind of lean one way or the other with quarterbacks. But we still got to get to that point. And then O-line wise, as we start to move the pieces around and get them together, I think we’ll have a better idea. I don’t know that yet, though. I have a pretty good idea in the O-line, I really feel like I have a pretty good idea of four of the five. And then we got to figure out who’s that fifth. Does that make sense? I really feel good about the three we’re brought in and Fano and then who’s going to be the fifth and then quarterback, who’s going to start for us. But I’m fired up by the quarterbacks. I just tell you, we got two starting level quarterbacks. We really do.”
With Shedeur coming on so strong lately, do you feel like in your quest to have your QB depth chart perhaps set by the end of minicamp, do you think it’s going to come right down to the wire for you if you’re even able to do that?
“Yeah, I don’t even know if I will be. Each day that changes. It just does. I mean, I see what you see, right. We look at the film and then we assess that. And again, I think both of them are doing exactly what we’re asking to do and competing like hell.”
Can you go back to the offensive line real quick, you said four out of the five. Does that include the ability to move Elgton (Jenkins) to either side or guard?
“Oh, yeah. I think Elgton could be guard or center. I think probably the right side. You know, somewhere in there – center, guard, tackle, Fano, and then let’s figure it out. I think those are our four pieces right now. And then where that fifth comes from, I think we’ll continue to battle, especially once we get the pads on because we still have the rest of the depth to work out, you know, who we’re going to keep on the 53 and who’s going to be a part of our practice squad.”
Can we expect minicamp practices to be very similar to what we’re seeing here?
“Yeah, I expect it to be the same. We actually get more time with them. I don’t anticipate we’ll spend more time than they give. You can be up to two and a half hours out here. I don’t feel like we’ll be out here that long. We’ll probably do our dynamic warm up earlier and then maybe we’ll be out an extra 15 minutes to get a few more reps while we’ve got them here. We got a lot of work to do. We just do. We got a long ways to go, as every team does in putting a product together that we jump right out of the gate when we head to Jacksonville.”
You mentioned with Verse that it can be a little less complicated to just focus on attacking and then blowing stuff up. How can that help a player to sort of simplify his job there?
“Well, I think anytime you simplify what you’re asking them to do from a technique standpoint and how you attack things, I think the greatest thing about what we do defensively is we turn guys loose, we allow them to play fast, disrupt and then clean up. And I love that. And I think our guys love playing in that system and you see it every day on the practice field. You talk about guys that love playing, love chasing the ball, and they love playing for each other. It’s awesome to see.”
As far as eight practices in the whole offseason thing, are you where you thought you would be at this point or slightly ahead, slightly behind?
“I don’t know. I really didn’t have any thoughts of where we’d be or where we’re going. I just know that what were we going to get done today? I really mean that. Like, and it’s hard to tell because we’re in shorts. I would say this. We have an awesome group of freaking players that love to compete. I mean that – we’re further ahead than I would have ever thought, becoming the head coach of the Browns. When I show up every day and all they do is show up and work, that’s cool as hell. And forget all the rest of the technique stuff and all that. That’s been awesome.”
I guess following up then, have you’ve gotten in the number of installs that you’ve wanted?
“Oh yeah. No, that part of it we’ve gotten in. So, from the install standpoint, I apologize, I didn’t know that’s where you’re headed. We’ve got all the installs in twice today would have been our last install. Offensively, we got it in phase two. So now the next four practices we’ll get to really work. Who are we really? You know, as opposed to all the installs. And every day you’re working situational football, so there’s certain things you’ve got to get in just game ending situations.”
I got an injury question for you. How’s Maliek Collins doing in his rehab? Like, is he still on track?
“He’s doing great, as far as I know. You know, being in Houston, being with his family, we get information back from his trainer and workout and we’re anticipating and again, looking forward to see him because he’ll be here for mandatory minicamp. We’ll see where he’s at then, but he’s on track. We’re excited.”
Going back to the offensive linemen, when you’re all said and done going into the season, what’s the number you hope to feel comfortable about feeling like “This is the group that if any of these guys are in a game on a Sunday that you know we’re good with them in the lineup?
“11. I mean, first off, you’re just trying to find five. I think there’s this thought that, I mean, that we’re certainly going to find five. Then we’ve got to find those we feel comfortable at tackle, right? Who’s our third tackle? Because that’s going to be different. Who’s our next center? Who’s a swing guard when you dress eight? So really you want to feel comfortable with eight. That’s really where you’re thinking, who’s going to be your especially your backup center and tackle? I wouldn’t say it’s easier, but I think guard is a little easier to transition. But I think finding whoever’s going to be your next center and then who’s going to be your backup tackle is critical.”
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