DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Expectations

I have a lot more confidence that our O can be at least somewhat productive with Monken than I would if Stefanski were still here. TM has the kind of personality to push and drive this team to do well whereas KS didn't seem to be able to light a fire under anyone.

Poor attempt at humor ..

I watched Sayin and Mestemaker.. Oklahoma State just plain looked bad. They have a bad Oline and everything followed. Mestemaker played scared. Sayin looked exactly the way you would expect against Ball State.

I also thought Moore looked the part against, "maybe" a better Boise State team. I didn't see Manning, Mateer or Mensah.

With Myles on the field during berrys time as a gm
We were 20 games below 500.
Fano could not fine 1 time where he dominated a
NFL level defensive lineman if this happens here
We will need 6 QBs.
Wr if they perform we will be in average to below
average group.
if they legitimately run rpos against
Top 15 defensive we could average less then 14 points
Special teams wait and see still not sold on kc being a real return man!!!
Ba
Line improved from the 25 to 30 ranked line
To 20 -25 ranked group till I see line up against Pittsburgh and consistently
Get 3 down in 2 yards to go by running the ball do not expect me to upgrade
This.

DIRECTV was the same way before Youtube got the contract for The NFL Sunday Ticket.

I really don't fault Youtube for the situation. The NFL puts the contract up for bid causing a bidding war and whoever wins that contact pays out the wazoo for it. As such that cost gets passed on to the consumer. It's actually the NFL that forbids the sale of single team viewing options. It's a part of the actual contract that the broadcaster must agree to. There is however ongoing litigation against the NFL regarding the NFL Sunday Ticket..............

Welcome to the NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation Website

https://www.nflsundayticketlawsuit.com/

Expectations breed letdowns. One of my favorite sayings.

That said, I do think if we stay healthy and get C- to C+ quarterback play, we’ll be solidly in the over for the betting line, which I think is 4 or 5 wins. Reminder that we also have a pretty easy schedule compared to last year.

We actually have a lot of talent on the field, this is not one of those years where we just have holes everywhere. It’s just that it’s a very young team with a new coach and system. If the OLine is just ok and the QBs are just ok, we will surprise a lot of teams. I could easily see us at 8-9 or 9-8 given the schedule.

Of course, that’s a double edged sword. We want a top QB because just ok isn’t good enough for QB.

We’ll see Sanders eventually, at least by mid season. I hope for one of two things:
1. He plays lights out and we have our guy (miracle of miracles… not counting on it), or
2. He sucks eggs and we commence the tank job

Nothing in between please. The “just ok” and 9-8 is kind of a worst case scenario. Also the most probable, injuries held in check, IMO. Good enough to string along a few years, not good enough to go deep. Football pergatory.

Actually there is a worse scenario… DW plays B level football and we end up a little better than 9-8 where we can’t reach any of the top 3-4 QBs without selling off the whole draft and maybe more. And we’re faced with possibly resigning DW. Which feels like intentionally re-giving yourself the clap after you finally ended 3 rounds of penicillin.

The way I see it, the most interesting part of your post is how it seems you know exactly how many rounds of penicillin it takes to get rid of the clap.

All I’ll say is that when I heard the USS Abe Lincoln was going to dock in Thailand for the fist time in months my first thought was I hope they have 3x’s as much penicillin as they thought they’d need

Feels like a new low for the level of interest before the first game of the season.

Well done Haslam. Well done Berry.

He's not still here otherwise he would share the blame

He was here the last down of football that was played. And he was the HC since 2020. Not a single down of football has been played since he left. If you're pointing fingers at where this team stands today, he would have been of part of the entire thing.

Or do you think that comment was based strictly on this years draft and FA period?

He's not here - so I won't be wasting my time venting or showing ire at a guy no longer here. It's as simple as that. If he was still here I would include him - he's not. Period. Move on.

Monken has a personality similar to Bill Parcells. I hope he's even close to being as successful.

Due to QB play, I put us at about 85% chance of having a top 4 draft pick.. I fully expect Arizona and Miami to be battling out ourselves and NY Jets for the top pick.

I don't think they could have done anything this year about our situation, which is why I'm not more upset than I am. They only thing I can complain about at this time is DURING DW TIME HERE, he has done nothing to show he is an average QB in the league, let alone franchise. Monken admitted that he didn't watch any of his Browns game film before naming him the starter. There is no upside to starting Watson, except that if he is as bad as we think he is, the Watson chapter can be SLAMMED shut and if/when SS fails, it will make sense to immediately move on to DG or TG. I do think SS has enough upside that if he went in and showed ANY signs of progress, you can justify him staying in and growing with the offense. If the Browns offense is horrible, but DW showed some upside, who cares? He isn't in the future. If the offense is bad, you can turn it over to Shedeur a lot faster than if the tables were turned AND then you would have to go from SS to DW, which could prolong the process of getting to QB3 and/or QB4.

We need to know what we have in that room going into 2027, but DW is the least of the 4 in what we need to know. Get him out of the way immediately so that the real knowledge can come into play. It also gives those that do matter a little extra time to acclimate to Monken's full play book and will give those players a better shot at success.

There, I talked myself off the ledge. This season is what it is. I can't get too upset when they do what I expect them to do. If they do more, good on them and we will figure that out later.

I can't help but think about his career in all of this. Bill Parcells was 43 when he got his first HC position with the Giants, 19 years after starting his coaching journey. Monken has been in coaching for 37 years and not a single person along that stop thought, this is HC material. At 60 I really hope he can provide some wisdom, but I would never mention him in the same sentence as Bill Parcells unless it was to address something someone else had wrote.

"Hey Gemini, I don't understand how Todd Monken never got close to a HC gig until the Browns came along..."


It actually makes a lot of sense when you look at the specific trends of NFL hiring cycles and Monken's unique career choices. Until the Cleveland Browns hired him in January 2026, several factors kept him under the radar for an NFL head coaching gig:

The "Age" Bias vs. Hot Young Coordinators: For years, NFL owners have been obsessed with finding the "next young offensive genius" (the Sean McVay effect). Monken, who turned 60 in February 2026, simply didn’t fit that specific mold. In fact, he is only the fourth man in NFL history to land his first head coaching job in his 60s.

His Pivot Back to College: Just as his NFL stock was rising after successful offensive stints in Tampa Bay and Cleveland (his first run as OC in 2019), he left the pros. Taking the University of Georgia offensive coordinator job from 2020 to 2022 took him out of the immediate NFL hiring loop, even though he won two national championships there.

He Accepted Being a Career Assistant: Monken openly admitted he had reached a point where he didn't think an NFL head coaching job would ever happen. He loved being an offensive coordinator and felt that if his career ended without a pro head coaching job, it was still a great run. He wasn't aggressively campaigning or playing the political games required to get interviews.

His "Unfiltered" Personality: Monken is famously blunt, strong-willed, and intense. He will openly call out players or his own quarterbacks to the media if they perform poorly. In an era where owners often look for polished, corporate-friendly CEOs, Monken’s old-school, raw authenticity can scare off certain front offices—until Cleveland decided they wanted exactly that kind of hard-nosed culture change to replace Kevin Stefanski.

I have no idea behind the thinking of starting DW. It may be as they say. They may believe he gives them the best chance to win. Which may be a statement that while being true it is only true on a temporary basis. The circumstances themselves may be why it's at least true at this point in time.

This is an entire new O scheme with an all new coaching staff and a totally revamped OL and new WR's. I could see how they would feel that it's going to be a very rough start to the season. How it will take some time for everyone to get on the same page. How a veteran QB like DW would make the better sacrificial lamb and have more experience at facing adversity.

It would be detrimental to SS development to throw him into the fire in such a situation straight from jump street.

I don't believe they in any way see DW as a part of the future. In fact my guess is they can't wait for the day to come when they have to option to kick him to the curb.

My supposition is that the reason they decided to start DW is that because they feel he "gives them the best chance to win at the moment". And once things tighten up a bit they'll move on to SS.