The final vacant head coaching position in the AFC North has been filled. The Cleveland Browns hired former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
With that, the Cincinnati Bengals are now set to keep facing Monken twice a year after previously facing him as a member of the Ravens.
Monken joins Mike McCarthy of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jesse Minter of the Ravens as the three new head coaches of the AFC North. So those three are who the Bengals will have at least six matchups per year with for the foreseeable future.
Monken has over 35 years of coaching experience, but since 2016, he has spent the vast majority of his time as an offensive coordinator for various college and NFL teams.
He had a stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2016 to 2018. Then he actually spent a season with the Browns in 2019 before moving on to Georgia for a couple of seasons. He spent the past three seasons as the Ravens offensive coordinator.
This coaching search has been a pretty messy one for Cleveland. We saw several candidates like former-Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniels, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski, and Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter (eventual Ravens’ head coach) all either pulled out or refused to interview for the job. There are also reports that Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula also refused to interview for the job.
Not to mention Monken also wasn’t exactly fond of the Browns during his one season there.
Of course, Freddie Kitchens was the head coach at that time, so it was before Kevin Stefanski came to town. It was also the season before Andrew Berry came aboard as the new GM. However, it is funny to go from that stance from Monken to this.
The other fallout might be even funnier. It seemed the Browns front office wanted to retain defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz as the team’s defensive coordinator. This reportedly may have had an impact of how some candidates felt about taking the job. Most coaches want to bring their own coordinators.
Well, the search got so bad that in recent days the team had started seriously considering Schwartz as the head coach. Now, after being passed over, Schwartz doesn’t seem to want to stick around after being passed over.
Ari Meirov reports that Schwartz has essentially told the Browns to ‘go screw themselves’ after not getting the job.
The job already wasn’t super attractive, as the team is still navigating the cap situation with quarterback Deshaun Watson, and doesn’t have a serious starting quarterback on the roster or in a position to get one this year. This team seemingly made their job even less attractive by trying to force Schwartz on the new head coach.
Now, they picked the bottom of the barrel for Monken and will likely lose Schwartz.
It is never a dull offseason in Cleveland.
So, as a Bengals fan, what are your thoughts on how the AFC North openings shaped out?
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