After Todd Monken was hired as the Browns offensive coordinator last month, head coach Freddie Kitchens said that Monken had other opportunities but chose to take a job that didn’t involve calling plays because of “what he’s going to be surrounded with and the environment that will be created moving forward.”
During a press conference on Thursday, Monken concurred with that explanation. He said he’d never met Kitchens before their interview, but felt that their personalities meshed well and that the Browns were “something I wanted to be a part of” in the future.
“I’ve always chosen places based on people and the opportunity to win,” Monken said.
While Monken won’t be calling plays, he said he wouldn’t have taken the job if he didn’t have input into what the offense would look like. He said he and Kitchens are working to make “the Browns offense” out of what both have done in the past, adding that his background with Air Raid principles has taught him that you can “throw to win” and that balance is about getting the ball to a lot of skill players rather than trying for a preordained split between running and passing.
Monken also said that the success of any offensive system is predicated on the players executing it and feels the Browns have young and talented players. That’s not an unusual view of how things look in Cleveland and it’s created the most optimism about the future in Cleveland in quite a while.