Head Coach Todd Monken (9.14.26)
Opening statement
“All right, I’ll go ahead and get started. After looking at the tape, disappointing. Not disappointed in our effort, not disappointed in our physicality, I thought our guys prepared awfully well. But at the end of the day, you are what you put on tape. What we put on film is me, our coaching staff, and our players. And it was below the line. From an operational standpoint, from a communication standpoint, Browns hurting Browns. And that was the big message today to the team, is we’ve got to make the opposing team play their best. And when you don’t, you’re really up against it. And that’s what I saw. So, if you guys are going to ask about what I saw, what I saw on the tape was starting off the way we wanted to in terms of getting the opening kickoff, putting a drive together, putting points on the board, and then from there, for the next 18, 20 minutes of football, we didn’t play complementary football. We couldn’t get a first down, and we couldn’t get off the field. And that was the story of the game. Because if you do watch early in the game, our physicality and our effort were where you’d want it to be, and we got to get that cleaned up. It’s only one, but it’s going to sting. And hopefully our guys right now that are watching the tape, like we always talk about, is owning it and fighting like hell to fix it. And there’s no doubt in my mind that’s what they’re going to do, starting with the film, and then on Wednesday, we get back to work.”
Hey, Todd, what’s the quarterback plan for Tampa Bay?
“I anticipate Deshaun (Watson) will be our starter.”
And for a guy that hadn’t played in so long, is that one of the reasons? It’s been 693 days; you want to see more than just one week?
“Oh, for sure. And it’s only been two weeks he’s gotten all the reps, and there were some really good things on film, some things that you can build on, and there were some others that, operationally, we got to get better at. There’s concepts, there’s only so many looks you get from week to week, be it red zone concepts or third-down concepts. And I did think that when he had time, when he understood the concepts, he didn’t play tentative, that he let it rip. And even the touchdown at the end, sure, that was garbage time, but that was on their one corner. That was one of their starters out there, and that was a communication between him and the receiver. So, there were a lot of things to build on. Was it perfect? Of course not. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have scored as few of points as we did. But I’d like to see how we can build on that. I liked his week of practice last week, and I think he’s only going to continue to get better.”
Did you guys have a little bit of an organizational debate about this? Did you deliberate over it? You sounded after the game yesterday like you were probably going to stick with Deshaun. Did today just confirm it when you watched the film, or did you really have to haggle over this a bit?
“No, it confirmed it when I looked at the tape. We got to play better around him, we got to call it better, and he’s got to play better. It wasn’t just our inability to function consistently as an offense was a byproduct of ‘we’ coaching and playing.”
You mentioned ‘we’. The operational part of it, getting out of the huddle, the play calls, all of that. When you assess that and went back over it over the last 24 hours or so, how can you clean that part up to make it easier maybe for Deshaun and the offense?
“Well, it starts with how we can shrink the calls. Some of that’s part of it. Some of it is just our skill guys getting out of the huddle, the O-linemen getting in there, our quarterback’s sense of urgency, and then get to the line of scrimmage, and you’ve got to have your eye on the clock. Everybody took turns and the ones we had, whether it was a timeout that had to be taken or the delay-of-games. And sometimes it’s just trying to do too much. You don’t have to be perfect. We do have to get the damn play off.”
With Zion (Johnson) you mentioned it was something you anticipated looking at today. Any update on him? Do you expect him to be good to go for next Sunday?
“I don’t really have an update yet, a final update, but we got good information earlier today in terms of where he was at today, so we’ll have a better idea when he gets back in the building Wednesday.”
On the defensive side, six out of seven first possessions, they kind of did what they wanted to do. 360 yards, and it seemed like you took the gas off a little. What did you think was the biggest breakdown? Was it the lack of pressure, or stopping the running game, or what?
“Well, usually when that’s the case, it’s all of it. At that point, when they’re scoring that consistently, you’re usually not stopping the run, and usually they’re able to complete chunk passes. And you’re in a real tough spot if you can’t hang your hat on anything, stopping the run or stopping them from throwing it. And it’s hard to get pressure on a quarterback when they’re comfortable in the play calls. They can have a ball-out mentality, max protect, they’re running the ball effectively. They were able to control the game with their O-line and stay ahead of the chains for the most part. They had a couple of conversions where we made a mistake, we busted in the back end, but ultimately, we’ve got to get it cleaned up. And again, like I always say, starting with coaching and then with playing, because it’s a ‘we’ thing. What can we do consistently on both sides of the ball to give ourselves a chance to score points and to stop them?”
And the secondary, you’ve got some new cornerbacks. Do you anticipate any of those guys being able to help out in the secondary, maybe this week?
“I don’t anticipate any changes in the back end. No, not personnel-wise, no.”
It felt like in some of those pressures that the Jags were able to put on Deshaun, the O-line was holding up, and it was just maybe a little scramble or a scramble in the wrong direction. How much of some of those pressures were miscommunication versus just a stout defense from the Jags that you can clean up personally?
“All the above. They’ve got good players. We did have a couple of miscommunications. We had a couple times where we got covered where he was looking, and that got him to scramble. There were a couple of good calls they pressured us into. We were trying to get out of the play and didn’t have a chance to get out of the play. All the above. Sometimes Deshaun’s just going to have to get rid of it. So, all of that was a byproduct of us being behind. Being behind in the score, and also just, again, everybody taking their turns.”
I want to ask you about the defense, too. Were you satisfied with the effort on the tackling yesterday?
“Well, you’re never as satisfied as you’d like. I thought in the open field, I thought our guys did a really good job of tackling. Now, there were a couple moments inside where their ball carriers did a good job of bouncing off tackles, but for the most part, in the open field, I thought our tackling was fine. I didn’t see that being as much of an issue as it was in terms of some of the run schemes that they had dialed up, that they were able to get to the second level pretty comfortably. But I did not see missed tackles. Obviously, there’s always going to be some missed tackles involved, but I did not see that as an issue. No.”
I wanted to ask you about Deshaun yesterday. It seemed like his game really kind of plummeted after he threw that early pick. Is there any concern for you about him being able to sustain and get back on track mentally after making mistakes early in games? Because it seemed like after that he was timid to throw the ball down the field and was a little gun-shy at that point.
“I wouldn’t say that. I would say that some of those weren’t called. Unless you’re watching the tape and know what we called. There were times we were trying to push the ball down the field, and he did have a missed throw once we moved the pocket one time. But I know right before halftime he made two great throws that put us in position, and then we got a couple of holding calls that had nothing to do with Deshaun. Sure, I’m sure there’s times where, when you’re not moving it, some of those throws are third down and extra-long. If you take the three series in a row where we literally went three-and-out, three-and-out, and we ran the ball and threw a screen and fumbled, that’s not a big sample size. That’s really not. We ran a naked on one of them, we had a couple of missed assignments. We had an ME on the next play. So, without watching the tape, you could say, ‘hey, he looked a little tentative there,’ and it would be like, no, not really. We just didn’t call certain routes that pushed it down the field, or we didn’t execute. We had too many Browns-hurting-Browns moments. Like I said, right before halftime, a couple of really nice throws. And then even as we got later in the game, I did not see that one bit, that he was tentative in terms of trying to throw it down the field. Sure, there’s a couple times maybe he could have pumped it down there, but in my mind, I didn’t see that.”
Any update on Dylan Sampson?
“We’re still evaluating Dylan, and we’ll have more information on Wednesday.”
What do you account for Denzel Boston just not being much a part of that offense? He had a lot of snaps and only three targets.
“Well, sometimes it just, we had some other opportunities where we either didn’t see him, or they did a good job of covering him. We had some other plays that were targeted for him that we checked out of it. And at the end of the day, we only had, I think it was 49 snaps that really went on the books, there was the penalties. So, when you only have that few snaps, you’re not going to get nearly as many targets as you’d like. So, it wasn’t by design, it certainly wasn’t, and they clouded it a little bit that way. We anticipate that. And again, we had those three drives right there in the first quarter and second quarter where we didn’t get a first down. So, it’s hard to really get into any rhythm at all when you’re not getting first downs.”
Just thoughts on the kick-return game. It seemed to be one of the few areas that went well for you yesterday.
“Well, first off, the opening kickoff return that we had, that got us to the 40 and got us, we had a couple first downs, and heck, we’re in field goal range and we’re going to take the lead. And then obviously Rocket (Raheim Sanders) had the second kickoff return that gave us our first points. We didn’t capitalize on it, but we also had two holding calls on two kickoff returns that kept us inside the 20. So obviously, you want to keep going down the road of the explosive part of it, and our guys blocking their rear ends off, but obviously the penalties. I also thought, special-teams-wise, our punt unit, Corey (Bojorquez) did a great job of hanging the ball in the air and letting our guys get down the field. That’s not always in vogue for a punter, right? It’s to want to kick it 65 yards down the field, stick your chest out, ‘look at me, look at my leg.’ And he didn’t do that. He directionally kicked, had hang time, and kept one of the best returners in the league at bay. And that’s a credit to our coverage guys and our punter.”
I know the opportunities weren’t a ton, but how disappointed in the run game were you? And what did you think kept it from really getting on track?
“We didn’t have enough plays. That’s where it got stuck. Early in the game, the first two runs, I think we got five a pop, which is what we were thinking. We thought some of the perimeter stuff was going to have to be explosive, whether it’s QB-driven or handing it off, which we did. We had a couple of good plays to KC (Concepcion), but before you knew it, it was three-and-out, three-and-out, and two-and-out, and you’re not going to get any type of rhythm. They didn’t even have to go into a rotation of their D-line. Where you’re able to take advantage of defenses is on a hot day, where you stack plays together and force them to rotate, you get some of their premium players out, and then you’re able to stack some runs and kind of wear them down. We were never able to do that. We had eight plays in about 30 minutes of time. So, you’re never going to be able to get that really going if you’re not stacking plays. And we ended up, basically the first four drives, we turned it over twice and went three-and-out on the other two. And that’s not a great recipe for success running the football.”
And what did you see out of the two rookies on the O-line?
“Oh, I’m jacked. Those two guys are going to be really good players. Austin (Barber), for jumping in there and learning early in the week, he’s going to be starting, and Spencer (Fano) is going to continue to grow. I really think we’ve got some young, really good players that are just going to continue to get better and better.”
Obviously, you know Baker Mayfield. Just wondering, you guys are going down there, you’re going to face Baker Mayfield at his home opener. He’s coming off three lost fumbles in that game, and he’s got this game circled in red. So, what are you expecting from Baker?
“Well, first off, he’s a great football player and highly competitive, and it’s irrespective of playing the Browns. He’s very prideful, he wants to play good football, and he’s a great football player. He can only speak to having it circled. I can only speak about what I think of him as a player and how competitive he is. And I’m super happy for him and his new contract, he certainly deserved it. He’s played his rear end off down there, and there’s very few people I’ve been around that like football more than Baker Mayfield, and that’s a fact. So, whether it’s us or another team, he was not going to be happy with the way he played, and he’s going to be ready to go.”
Last night Mike Tomlin on Football Night in America said after the loss, that the Browns is the Browns. I know you’ve had a lot of really good battles against Mike Tomlin throughout your AFC North years. Just wondering what you think of him saying something like that?
“Well, again, everybody’s afforded their opinions, right? That’s what you do when you go from coaching to television. We have to own that, meaning we have to own that we didn’t play very well. I don’t see it that way, Browns being Browns. I don’t see it that way. Every week is different; every team is different. We just didn’t play well. That’s one week. That’s not Browns being Browns. That’s Browns playing poorly on one week. So again, everybody’s afforded their opinion, and the only way to change people’s opinion is to play better. That’s a fact. We don’t want to be considered an also-ran. Then we’ve got to play better. We’ve got to coach better, and we’ve got to play better.”
I know you don’t care what the fans say about the quarterback situation, but I know you also care what the locker room thinks of the quarterback situation. Are you 100% sure that you have the right guy playing?
“I don’t know, you’d have to ask every one of those guys. You said 100%, and really, to be honest, they don’t have a choice. This isn’t a debate. I don’t ask the players every series what play we’re going to call, what play we’re going to call on defense. Like, their job to play, and our job to put the best player on the field that we think gives us a chance to win. And I love our guys. But the moment we get into that, in terms of who this guy should be playing, what we’re doing, what we ought to be calling, we’ve lost. We’ve lost sight of the target, which is to own it and fix it and try like hell to get better. And that’s irrespective of who goes out there. But there’s decisions that are made at every position, quarterback just happens to be one of those. Ultimately, I don’t blame people for having opinions, but ultimately, it’s for all of us to support who we put on the field that gives us the best chance to win.”
# # #
***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.***