The Cleveland Browns hire, fire and fail.
So why is a 60-year-old rookie NFL head coach wasting his time on a failed $230 million investment?
Todd Monken backing Deshaun Watson during training camp would make a little more sense if the Browns hadn’t traded Myles Garrett – the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year – to a Los Angeles Rams team that already featured reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford.
Sean McVay’s Rams are dreaming of representing the NFC in Super Bowl LXI inside the same SoFi Stadium that they call home.
The stunning blockbuster deal for Garrett could be followed by three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald unretiring and pairing up with Garrett.
Which means that the splashy Rams once again don’t care about draft picks and are in it to win it in 2026.
The Browns?
Monken possesses a smart offensive mind.
But he never reached the Super Bowl with Lamar Jackson as his quarterback in Baltimore, and Monken has far more experience in college football (Georgia, Southern Miss, Oklahoma State, LSU, Louisiana Tech, Eastern Michigan) than calling the big daily shots for an NFL franchise.
Wrap all that together and it’s surreal to watch the Browns set up a ‘training camp battle’ between Deion Sanders’ son and Watson, who hasn’t been a good NFL QB since the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.
That was 2020, when Watson threw for a league-high 4,823 yards but his Houston Texans finished 4-12 and began to burn through head coaches.
Six years later, Monken has missed his initial target – the Browns were supposed to have picked a starting QB during the offseason – and followed up that error by inserting third-stringer Dillon Gabriel back into the starting conversation.
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“I said it the other day, everybody’s competing, but you’re not guaranteed the same amount of reps,” Monken said.
“So it’s up to the player to take advantage and maximize those reps, which I feel like Dillon has done. So we’ll see as we move forward, if that continues, we’ll continue to up his reps. He’s earned that.”
Cleveland is predicted to win five games.
How many will Watson win if he starts Week 1 through 18 with a weak receiving corps and a weakened defense — six?
With Browns owner Jimmy Haslam directly pinning the decision to trade Garrett on embattled general manager Andrew Berry, Cleveland is again playing with chaos before the first preseason game has been played.
If Watson starts Week 1, that means picking Gabriel in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft will have been miss, while taking the already-controversial Sanders in the fifth round will look even worse.
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If Sanders eventually receives the starting QB nod from the rookie Monken, then taking Gabriel at No. 94 overall is another misfire by Berry – who should’ve been fired at the same time as ex-Browns HC Kevin Stefanski – and Haslam is clueless in hinting that Watson could return to Cleveland in 2027.
“I think there are all kinds of possibilities out there — so, yes,” Haslam said.
“But here, again, we’ve got to get through practice. I think our quarterbacks will play in the exhibition games. That’s obviously Todd’s call, and then Todd will figure out who’s going to start.”
The problem is that Monken still doesn’t know who to start and he’s dealing with the same three QBs who helped get Stefanski fired last season.
Freddie Kitchens, Hue Jackson, Mike Pettine, Rob Chudzinski and Stefanski are historical proof that the Browns rarely get it right and normally don’t know what they’re doing.
Watson isn’t the long-term future in Cleveland and should be gone after this season.
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Sanders was one of the worst QBs in the NFL last year and recently ranked dead last in the league by The Athletic.
“He’s inaccurate at all three levels,” an executive said. “I can’t tell if he is going to get better, but there’s a huge gap between him and competent QB play.”
At least if Monken backs the unpredictable Sanders, Berry can get the blame for getting it wrong with all three current QBs, while the Browns can buy more time until franchise savior Arch Manning appears at the top of the 2027 draft.
Monken needs to understand how losing really works in Cleveland.
