Cleveland Browns Head Coach Todd Monken Has a Shocking Myles Garrett Update
The first thing you learn covering the NFL in May is this: coaches treat voluntary workouts the way dads treat IKEA instructions. “Nice suggestion, but I think I got this.” Still, when Cleveland Browns Head Coach Todd Monken casually brushed aside questions about Myles Garrett skipping OTAs, it landed with all the comfort of hearing turbulence on a red-eye flight.
Technically, Monken is right. OTAs are voluntary. Garrett has earned the right to miss a few spring practices after terrorizing quarterbacks for years and coming off another absurd season that added to his already legendary résumé. The man practically needs his own zip code in opposing backfields.
But this isn’t happening in a vacuum. Not in Cleveland. Not with trade rumors circling like gulls around a stadium parking lot after a tailgate. That is why Monken’s calm tone somehow made everything feel louder.
Monken Is Playing It Cool
Monken told reporters he wasn’t worried about Garrett’s absence and downplayed the lack of communication between the two. On paper, that sounds reasonable. Coaches say these things every offseason. Nobody wins in May. Nobody hangs an “OTA Attendance Champion” banner. Still, Browns fans have lived through too much football trauma to simply shrug this off.
This franchise once made quarterback instability feel like a seasonal tradition. Browns supporters see smoke and immediately assume the whole lakefront is on fire. Monken’s approach appears deliberate. He is trying to establish stability in a building that has spent years feeling like a washing machine stuck on spin cycle. The new head coach has emphasized accountability and structure during offseason practices, and players have already noted the sharper tone around the facility. Garrett is not “players.”
He is the franchise cornerstone. He is the guy offensive coordinators dream about the night before games. When your best player is absent while trade rumors continue bubbling under the surface, people notice.
The Monken Era Already Has a Cloud Hanging Over It
Here’s the uncomfortable part for Cleveland. Monken was hired to bring fresh energy and credibility after another frustrating Browns season. Yet before he’s even coached a regular-season snap, the conversation keeps drifting back to whether the team’s most important player truly wants to be there long term.
Garrett has remained mostly quiet publicly, which only adds fuel to the speculation machine. In the NFL, silence becomes its own language. Fans dissect it like the Zapruder film. The concern isn’t irrational. Teams don’t casually restructure contracts, push bonus deadlines around, and repeatedly answer trade questions unless there’s at least some tension in the room.
The Browns can say all the right things publicly. Monken can insist everything is fine. Garrett can eventually show up and sack three quarterbacks in September, as if nothing happened. But right now, this feels less like “nothing to see here” and more like everyone trying very hard to act normal at Thanksgiving after two relatives argued in the driveway.
Why Monken Needs Myles Garrett More Than Ever
This is where the football side becomes unavoidable. Monken’s first season in Cleveland depends heavily on Garrett remaining the centerpiece of the defense. Period. The Browns are entering a transitional phase with a new coaching staff, fresh offensive ideas, and major questions at quarterback. That kind of uncertainty becomes survivable when you have a generational pass rusher wrecking games every Sunday.
Garrett isn’t just productive. He changes how opponents construct entire game plans. Lose that, and suddenly the margin for error disappears faster than stadium beer money in the second quarter. The Browns know it. Monken definitely knows it.
That is why his relaxed answers probably weren’t meant to sound alarming. Yet in Cleveland, where optimism and dread often travel together like division rivals on a team bus, the reaction was inevitable.
For More Great Content
Find Justin on X: https://x.com/jrimp803 and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-rimpi-11502014a/
