Grading The Hire: Cleveland Browns’ process of hiring Todd Monken says the quiet part out loud even if there’s success
Cleveland Browns have hired Todd Monken and he now has a tough task in front of him to right the ship.
The Cleveland Browns finished a long process to find their next head coach on Wednesday with Todd Monken set to take over the team.
Monken is set to be a first-time coach and has proven success as an offensive coordinator. Cleveland’s process of making the hire is the problem with this one — no matter how successful or unsuccessful Monken is.
Grading the Cleveland Browns’ hire of Todd Monken
23 days is how long it took the Browns to come to terms that it would be Monken as the next coach. There were three candidates for the job between Jim Schwartz, Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, and Monken. Cleveland, with what is known as one of the more tedious interview processes, settled on soon to be 60 year old Monken to be the next head coach.
The Browns’ strong suit for the team is the defense and that’s mainly why Schwartz was in contention for the job. Multiple reports made their way out following the hire of Monken that Schwartz wants no part of returning to the Browns. Cleveland’s defensive coordinator thought the job was his and the impact of not getting it has him not wanting to stick around and coach the defense.
Cleveland has a great defense led by Myles Garrett and it would quickly have suitors lined up to take over. The Browns making Schwartz a finalist and taking him to the end of the process, then hiring a coach at the same age who has never done it before is a bad look. No matter what, the process is bad here and the Browns cannot escape that.
The Browns could have done right by Schwartz and had him in for his first interview and not have gone further, said action would have let him down easier than taking him to the finish line. Schwartz may be replaceable as a coach, but he does have the command and respect of the defense, and that’s not always easy to replicate.
A lot of this interview process felt like the Browns were worried about losing Schwartz and trying to appease him with how they handled the hiring.
Cleveland’s anchor is its offense and bringing in an offensive hire made the most sense for the team. Going with someone like Scheelhaase as a first-time coach, over a longtime assistant coach who has never been a head man felt like a chance the franchise should have taken if it wasn’t Schwartz getting the job.
The 2026 season will tell if the Browns made the right decision or not. If there’s not a clear uptick in the offense, no matter what the record is with a lighter schedule, the Browns very well could be doing this thing again.
Grade: D
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