Head Coach Todd Monken (8.25.26)
With so many of the starters and regulars not playing, do you treat today as like a regular practice compared to how you might if you were two days out from a game?
“For sure. Today will just be a regular practice for our guys. We’re not really preparing for Thursday night, we’ll get to that tomorrow. Not that we’re not repping concepts we expect to run in the game, and we are, but it’s really getting our guys that are ones, who we know are going to be on the roster getting the work.”
How much weight do you put in this game versus, we talk so much about the whole body of work with the quarterbacks, but with the roster and the decisions you have to make in this game and the body of work?
“It’s a piece. It’s all a piece. Every single day in the building and on the practice field is a piece. The games that we play are a piece. How much you weigh them? Up to debate depending on what you see or don’t see, or who it’s against. All of that is part of it. It just is. So, you’ve got to weigh it, take the information, and make the best decisions you can.”
You explained why you’re not playing the starters after your discussion with (Mike) Vrabel, but why aren’t you playing Shedeur (Sanders)?
“We’re not playing them because we’d like to see Dillon (Gabriel) more. It worked out last game, that was unfair to him. So, in order to do that, to see more of him and see Taylen (Green), there’s just not enough reps. That’s the reason, there’s really nothing else. Just trying to see Taylen after he played pretty well in the limited reps he had against the Bills, and we want to see more of Dillon. It just hasn’t worked out trying to get those other guys reps. That’s the reason.”
When you talk about Taylen and you talk about how smart he is, and I know he’s had very limited reps, but do you still think there could be a world in which you could use him in some of those special situations, maybe not right away?
“I don’t know that yet. It’s just been so limited at practice. We’ve just dedicated so many of the reps to Shedeur and Deshaun (Watson), it’s really limited their opportunities, Dillon and Taylen. And yet they’ve handled it great. Both prepare like they’re pros, like they should. So, I’m just excited to see them play, because again, they don’t get nearly as many reps in practice so their opportunity to get out there and play will weigh heavily in where we look at the roster moving forward.”
Will Dillon and/or Taylen get any team reps today? It didn’t look like they got any yesterday.
“I don’t anticipate them getting many team reps today.”
From their perspective, how challenging is that then to go into Thursday night and get a bunch of reps when you haven’t practiced much, kind of like being a backup quarterback?
“It’s not easy. It’s not easy. Even if you’re the backup quarterback, you’d hope like heck that you got the reps, other than if someone got hurt, then you’d have to go in on game day. But that’s just the choice we made, ‘Alright, what do we want to do?’ Let’s get the guys we know we want to watch in practice, and give them the reps.”
Taylen mentioned that Dirk Koetter was one of his assistant coaches somewhere-
“At Boise, he was at Boise.”
He was your old boss. Did that give him a little jump-start on what you’re doing here?
“Some of that. There are pieces of what we do offensively that go all the way back to that. Some concepts, I’m sure. But I’m sure over the course of time we’ve changed a little bit. Do I think there’s some comfort there in that knowing how he’s wired, and Taylen being able to talk to a coach about me? I think that helps in terms of our relationship, yes. More maybe of that than schematically.”
What do you say to Taylen as he’s getting ready for his first NFL game?
“Man, isn’t this cool? Everything you dreamed about that the majority of us don’t get to do, to put the helmet on. Forget that you’re in practice, right? You’re a Cleveland Brown. But heck, you got drafted, right? So, you got your name called. It’s just that next step. It just is really cool. Like the whole thing with Luke (Floriea), right, with the touchdown? I asked him the other day at practice, I’m like, ‘Did you get the ball at least? Did you at least keep it?’ He’s like, ‘No, I forgot, but Tylan Wallace got it for me.’ So, Tylan was cool enough to go get it from the official and give it to him and you forget those really cool stories and moments that only very few people get to live, as much as I have, most of us have dedicated our lives to this sport, to be able to play in an NFL game is really freaking cool.”
Some head coaches who might, during preseason games, give an opportunity to other players, but will you call plays on Thursday?
“I’ll call Thursday. Yeah.”
We talked to Maliek Collins today, and he mentioned how much pride he takes in his leadership. I don’t know if you’ve gotten to see a lot of that at this point, but how important is it to have a guy like that on the team, especially a team like this that’s so young?
“I’ll just speak to this, I think I said it the other day, but what an unbelievable job in the offseason of what he did from afar, because his family wasn’t here for the majority of the offseason. Being in Houston, which in most cases is not ideal. In most cases, I think your medical people and your coaches would say you want your players here. So that takes diligence. That takes being a pro. That means an everyday approach. And where he’s at in his career, it’s not easy. He’s not a young player. He’s made enough money to probably be okay. Says a lot about him. Like I said, he came back when we started camp, and I’m like, ‘man, I think he’s ready to go right now.’ So, that’s a lot to say about him. And you could see that yesterday in practice, how the guys rallied around having him out there in the individual period, which I showed today in the team meeting. That tells you how they think about him.”
Is there uncertainty about who your QB3 is going into the season?
“I wouldn’t say that. We just want to see them. I wouldn’t say there’s uncertainty, but I do think we want to see both of them, and it’s unfair to judge Dillon based on basically what happened last game, for sure.”
Going back to Maliek, just along those lines, we were talking to him today, he talked about how even though he had such good production last year, he felt like there were things he could have done better rushing-wise. To hear a veteran say that and always kind of finding those things, how helpful is that with how many young guys you have around him?
“No, he’s wired the right way. It just is what it is, and those guys know it. So, it’s been impressive.”
You mentioned yesterday the long game with Shedeur. How could this setup now, where it will be a longer run-up to whenever he plays next in a regular-season game, maybe set him up for better success, as opposed to throwing him out to the wolves on the road in week one?
“Well, I don’t know that. Every player is a little bit different. You see quarterbacks go in there and right away play well, and you’ve seen others that need some time, and that’s at every position. Some, it happens quicker than others, some have further to go. I know this, from the jump in the offseason, when he showed some things that I really liked, the way he’s wired, that’s when we made the decision to give him more reps. That’s when we decided to make it a competition for Shedeur, and for us. That was the point of it all, to get where he’s at today. Because early on, in my opinion, it was pretty obvious that Deshaun was ahead, his experience, right? He should be, there’s no difference there. We made that decision, and where he’s at today is a byproduct of that. I’m excited about the long game for him. There are certain things he has to continue to work on, and he’s going to continue to grow leaps and bounds because he’s a sponge; takes it all in, he really does. So, I just think it’s a matter of time before we get a chance to see that.”
Is the number one offensive line set we saw Thursday?
“I anticipate that would be our set offensive line, yes.”
I know the team waived Dae’Quan Wright on Monday, but I’m just curious on your perspective. When did you become aware that he might want to leave? Did you see Lane Kiffin’s comment?
“I did. Okay. First off, one of our staff had said, that’s why I said ‘us,’ not me. I said that Lane Kiffin – one of our staff, had said that they’d gotten a text. I should have followed through with it. Maybe they meant someone from their staff, right? That’s on me. I shouldn’t throw someone’s name out there without following through on it. I was just making light of it. I really wasn’t trying to make a big thing of it. It was just like, ‘man, what this world we’ve come to,’ and I shouldn’t have thrown that out there, right? To me, hey I can’t control this. It was almost like silliness and goofiness, like, really? This is what we’ve come to, where guys can be here and go back to college? It’s really not a big deal, other than I probably shouldn’t have said it without knowing for sure. So it is what it is.”
When did you know that Dae’Quan might leave?
“I knew it when it got on social media. How the hell would I know? I’ve never had to deal with it. Like who’s had to deal with? Like oh, and that happens in college with everybody. They catch word of something. You have players on your own team like, ‘Catching word from so-and-so that he might be entering the portal.’ It’s just word of mouth. They’re not going to come to you and say, ‘Hey, you know what, I’m thinking about going back to college.’ No. So it was a weird situation. He got hurt, he’s going back to college. It is what it is. Good luck to him, he’s a good kid. And they’re going to do a great job at LSU. That’s what they should do. Their job is to get the best players they can to win games. I’m not mad at anybody. I shouldn’t have taken what I’d heard and ran with it.”
With Parker (Brailsford), how concerned are you about him getting out and getting the reps he might need to be ready for the regular season?
“Well, we’ll see. You know, just when he gets out there and get a chance, we’ll just have to see.”
Yesterday, it looks like Denzel Boston was going up against Denzel Ward a number of times. How valuable is that work for both guys, but particularly for a rookie?
“You come to find out that there’s a difference. Denzel’s (Ward) missed a little bit of time, so has Tyson (Campbell). We haven’t played teams yet that have played their top corners. So, there is a difference. There are millionaires and there are thousandaires, right? And the guys out there that are really good, they’re multi-multimillionaires, and they’re paid to cover. That’s how you develop: going up against the best, and yet having other opportunities to build your confidence. There’s a combination of that. You want to have some success to help build your confidence, but then you’ve got to see where you’re at, with any position. That’s the way it is. So, I’m always excited to see our guys go against it, because it gives you a little bit of insight as to where they’re at at this point.”
# # #
***Visit the Browns Media Center for materials provided by the Browns communications department, including media schedules, press releases, quotes, photos, media guides, rosters, depth charts and more.***