Head Coach Todd Monken (9.29.26)

I just saw yesterday that Elgton (Jenkins) ended up in the concussion protocol. It’s probably kind of a short one for him to try to get back. So, what’s the outlook for that?

“Well, if he can’t get back, then we’ll go with Wyp (Luke Wypler). He played at the end of the year last year, has done a great job of working himself back after the injury he had last year and missing really the offseason. And if Elgton can’t go, then I’ll look forward to seeing Wyp play.”

 

Do you have a backup behind Wyp?

“We anticipate Parker (Brailsford) would be our backup.”

 

What is the biggest challenge to putting together a game plan on such a short week?

“Well, it is a mad rush. I was telling the guys, and everybody deals with this, today would be their day off. And really for us, it’s Thursday/Friday leading into the game. But this is where you want to be. I mean, you want to be playing on Thursday night, Sunday night, Monday night, at 4 o’clock. Isn’t that where you want to be playing? The better you get, the better you play, the more they put you on primetime. So, this is really cool for our guys. And all the primetime games and all the overseas games generate more revenue, and they make more money, we all make more money, that’s part of the process. And so, our guys are excited about it. Sure, there are some things that go into the game planning and the short week, but our guys will be ready.”

 

I mean, off of that, typically the last couple decades, when you play Pittsburgh on a short week, you sort of had an idea what you’d get, because Mike (Tomlin) was there, and philosophically they were, you knew what they were going to do. How much more of a challenge is this week with a completely new staff? Obviously, a lot of players are the same, but how much of a challenge does that make this, more so than what you’ve dealt with in the past with Pittsburgh?

“Well, Patrick (Graham) does a great job defensively and has for a while. That’s why he never has to worry about a job. You watch the way they played in Las Vegas and where he’s been in the past, and how hard their guys play, difficult to prepare for. So, we do have some background, and we do have history playing against the players and the front that they’ve got, and some of the guys in the back end. And it’s always been very difficult. They’ve got some really good players up front and have been for a while. It’s been six times over the last three years we’ve gone against them, or at least at the place I was previously. And they’re difficult to play against, and Patrick’s done a great job. It’s not the first game; we do have three games just like they have three games on Rudy (Mike Rutenberg). It’s very similar, in the same fashion, of what is the sample size moving forward. And that’s part of the challenge that happens every year in the league.”

 

What do you think about when you think of Aaron (Rodgers) and the career he’s had and what he’s still doing?

“Oh man, how cool is that? And then he still wants to do it. I think that’s probably the biggest thing, is he still has it in him to want to do it. And he said it last year, to make the playoffs and play good again, and play at a level he feels like he’s capable of playing. And to me, that’s just, when you talk about life in general, to be at the top, then have some of the frustrations that come in, you know, with the Jets, and then to go there and play at the level he did, really cool for him. One of the all-time greats, I mean, there’s no way around it. I mean, just, that’s hard. Everybody in the NFL is elite, but to be an all-time great is, man, that’s special.”

 

Do you think there’s any difference in the intensity of the rivalry between Baltimore and Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Pittsburgh since you’ve been with both teams?

“Oh, I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s a great division for rivalries. I grew up in the Midwest, with the Packers and the Bears and the Vikings and the Lions, and when you talk about these Midwest divisions, I think that division and this division are right there together in terms of the rivalries. And this just happens to be one of them, and it happens to be the first divisional game for us and second for them.”

 

How much actual practice time do you get this week and does it change what you normally get?

“It does change. We walked yesterday, so we got the reps in. So, we walked yesterday, we’ll get some full speed work today, but a majority of it will be jog through, and then we’ll jog tomorrow and try to get our bodies back as quickly as we can. Because I thought our guys really played fast on Sunday, I thought they played with a certain intensity that you need in order to win those close games and have it throughout the 60 minutes. And our guys did that. So, we’re looking to make sure that we get our bodies back.”

 

What about the hot start that T.J. Watt is off to and just how good has he been?

“Well, I mean, I think it’s about time that he retires. I think, to me, (Cameron) Heyward and all those guys, it’s credit to those guys, how long they’ve done it at the level they’ve done it. And it’s been tough to go against, those elite players are hard, are challenging, like every week in the NFL. But those guys, along with the other guys that they have in their front seven and in the back. But credit to him, he’s doing it like I’ve always seen him do it.”

 

With the defense and Rudy as a whole, I know that Panthers were talking about some coverage things they saw in the game that they hadn’t seen on film, just moving the guys around upfront the way he did. How much credit goes to those guys for their buy-in and willingness to take on different roles each week based on matchups, and Rudy figuring it all out?

“Well, that’s part of it. Week-to-week league, what you’re going to do to try and put your players in the best position to have success. Each team presents different challenges offensively and defensively, so you can make certain tweaks here or there that you think best gives you the opportunity to have success. And I think they’ve done a great job with that, looking at it, after week one, ‘where were we?’ Week two, ‘okay, we’re always under construction’, I said the other day, in terms of improving our team, offense, defense and special teams. But it’s a part of buy-in, it’s a part of that. And I think they buy into themselves. I think initially the player has to buy into themselves as a unit, and what they see from an individual player, collectively what you count on from your teammate, and then ultimately, schematically what we do, we put our players in the best position to be successful.”

 

How much of a matchup problem is (Jaylen) Warren, not only as a running back, but how he can catch the ball out of the backfield?

“Well, he’s unbelievable, contact balance, fearless, a really, really good player. And he didn’t get some of those throws last year because of (Kenny) Gainwell being there and was kind of a safety net for Aaron. But I’ve always had a ton of respect for Jaylen Warren all the way back to when he transferred to Oklahoma State, and you could see it then, and then what he’s done at Pittsburgh. And he’s a hard guy to get to the ground, you need to swarm tackle him, and you have to put multiple hats on him.”

 

Any update on Tylan Wallace?

“Not yet, don’t have the update yet. We’re still, don’t exactly know when that’s coming out, but I know we’re still waiting on a few things.”

 

Jared (Verse) was saying he felt like this week he got back to kind of doing what he does, which is power rushing and trying to run through guys’ faces. Did you see a difference in him and the impact he had on the pass rush, and the other guys getting sacks?

“I think so. First of all, Jared is a heck of a football player, okay, and he wants to be elite. He’s a self-made guy, in my opinion, how hard he works, very prideful, and he’s not, beyond any of us, he wants to have success, right. He wants to get to the quarterback, he wants to disrupt the game, and I think he’s right in terms of just, like, ‘all right, what can I do, right, what is it that I do well, and don’t try to be anybody else but yourself, and be the best version you can of yourself.’ And I think he’s bought into that and really affected the quarterback. All of our guys affected, they took to heart pushing the pocket and limiting the space that their quarterback had to move around, and they all took that to heart, and that disrupted. They won’t get credit for defended passes or batted balls, but there were a number of throwaways or misfires because of the pocket being pushed, getting in his lap.”

 

Deshaun Watson has been so effective with his legs and seems to be gaining more and more confidence in his Achillies. Do you feel like you can build on that even more? More designed runs, RPOs? Do you like where you have that right now?

“I think we’re fine. I mean, a decent amount of that happened organically, when he scrambled, it wasn’t all, a good number of yards weren’t QB driven. Do I think that’s part of what makes him who he is, his ability to move and get us out of trouble? Of course. And as we continue to move down the road, we’ll get better playing around him, Browns stop hurting Browns, and he’ll get better at trusting guys, and trusting his drop and his eyes, and where it needs to be. And again, we got a ways to go, but we got a chance today to clean up a lot of things.”

 

When you talk about points of emphasis, with a guy like Darnell Washington with as big and strong as he is and who will get the ball in his hands at some point, what’s the point of emphasis for trying to pin a guy like that down?

“Oh, man, it was fun having him at Georgia. I mean, it was fun. Him and Brock Bowers made life a lot easier. Darnell’s unbelievably athletic, tough, physical, and you get the ball in his hands, he’s hard to bring down, and we probably didn’t do it enough even at Georgia. But having him on the edge helps you block the C-gap, helps you be able to run the ball. And he’s got such great range and power, he is hard to get, you got to go low, you won’t bring a big man like that down at his size if you don’t gang tackle and get him low.”

 

We talked to Tytus (Howard) earlier, and he owned those false starts. My question is, he’s got that in his mind, how do you coach him to make sure he doesn’t hesitate, to make sure he doesn’t get a false start?

“Oh, I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t. The guy’s been playing long enough right now to understand cadence and trying to jump the snap count. So, it’s really not anything that, you believe are the point, we just can’t do it, right, I mean, it’s just part of it. He’s not a rookie, he’s a veteran player, and he understands that.”

 

Is this the best that you’ve seen Denzel Ward play? And does he kind of become one of those guys that just shuts down whatever happens?

“I don’t know. I mean, he’s been playing at a high level for a long time, and his play speaks for that, it just does, over the course of time. I’ve seen it over the previous three years, and I was here in ’19, so I just think he continues to play at a high level. He’s at a point in his career, I think he’s very comfortable in terms of his play, and confident. And now you see it.”

 

How many nuances are there for rookie receivers to learn as they go through their development here? With KC (Concepcion Jr.) and Denzel (Boston) can you help us understand, just everything that goes into playing that position between the ears because I think we just see the routes?

“First of all, you talk about two young men that are diligent, highly intelligent, it’s important to them to get it right. And at times we forget that they’ve played three games in the NFL, because we want to move them around, we want to find different spots we can play them, right? And at times it’s counterproductive, because we just haven’t gotten through all of the nuances that go with each spot, whether you’re inside or you’re outside, or whether you’re in the boundary or to the field, what looks you get on a given week. And that’s some of the struggles we’re having offensively with so many young players, whether it’s a tight end or running back or O-line, you’ve got so many things that come up where you’re like, ‘okay, there’s not as much to really refer back to from an experience standpoint.’ And those aren’t excuses, we got to be cleaner, we got to play a lot better, got to coach it better. But those guys are constantly on top of their stuff, and you can see it, and that’s a real credit to them at a young age. And they’ve got a lot of reps doing it, but they’re only going to continue to get better and better and better once they play extended plays and extended games.”

 

With quarterback reads, what do receivers have to read when they’re running into coverage out there?

“What receivers have to read when they’re going through that? Well, you know, years ago, you didn’t have nearly as many, just start with cans or checks at the line, you just ran plays and tried to make sure you got the right look. And football’s advanced a long way in terms of that, trying to get to a premium play, trying to see what the defense is doing. And it’s the same thing with routes, you have a lot more conversion rules, you have a lot more adjustments based on what the look is and the depths or the route concepts. And so those are things that, in a new system, guys learn and get better with every rep. Because it allows you to play at a much higher level, now it comes with a price, as you’re working through it, which we’re finding out, as we’re working through a new system, is some of the mistakes that we’re making, that’s counterproductive to winning, to moving the football, stacking plays. And that’s starting with me, and then our offensive staff, and all of our players. But with those guys, every day they are learning and getting better, you are going to continue to see it. You guys asked me about Mason (Graham). We all want it now, and it’ll come if they’re wired the right way, and they continue to be diligent. And that’s all we’re trying to do, is the next day, how do we get the next day better?”

 

We know how much you hate crappy football. In a practice going into a Thursday night, quick turnaround, does the practice regimen change at all in terms of limiting those penalties?

“Not really. I mean, it’s really, the operation is much harder, and we fixed that. We didn’t have to take a timeout, we didn’t have delays, we didn’t have all that, didn’t have the right guys on the field. I mean, it seems simple, but that’s the start of it. It’s just things that really, I didn’t see, right, like that’s hard to…I didn’t see Tytus in practice, I didn’t see covering guys up, I didn’t see those certain things. It’s just our mental stamina, when getting outside of your little comfort zone of, we did it exactly this way, right, or we lined up a little bit, and then I get over there, like, how do we fix it? And that’s what we’re fighting to do, is how do we fix it, because we didn’t see that coming, right, we didn’t, when we practiced it. And obviously, that’s why you play, so guys get comfortable when it’s game time.”

 

When you get a guy like (Aaron) Rogers, how difficult is it with pass rush and coverage, just defending with his quick release? Because I think he had two touchdowns last week, plus 20 throws that were under 2.5.

“Yeah, no, I mean, first of all, he’s got an unbelievably quick trigger, I mean, he can just flick it, unbelievably accurate. There’s not anything he hasn’t seen, you talk about a student of the game, not only has he seen it, but highly intelligent. And so, you have to do a great job with your disguises as best as you can and still be in position to make plays on the ball. And he’s certainly more than capable of changing the play at the line of scrimmage, right, getting the receivers on the same page. I mean, that’s probably the one thing I’ve seen over the years, not being around, what frustrates him the most, is how don’t the guys see the game like I see it, like, how are they not on the same page as me? And at times I’m like that, I’m like, ‘why aren’t we putting this all together?’ And I’m not, I’m not comparing myself to Aaron Rodgers, please don’t take it that way. I’m just saying that he wants it to be perfect, he doesn’t like crappy football either, it’s a pain in the rear end to him, and he’s also a guy that sees if you’re subbing, gets him up on the line, done a great job with cadence. I mean, he’s been the master of, when you talk about cadence, it’s substitutions and getting to premium plays. He’s the standard. He is.”

 

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