Todd Monken’s decision to pick Mike Rutenberg as his defensive coordinator over more well-known candidates like Jason Tarver and Cory Undlin has dominated much of the discussion around the Cleveland Browns this past week.
You could argue that the Monken hire nobody’s talking about could wind up being just as critical to the team’s success.
Rutenberg comes to Berea with strong references and a gravitating personality that won Monken over during the interview process. He’s inheriting one of the most talented defenses in football, though, led by the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Myles Garrett.
The Browns will likely flash some new wrinkles on Sundays, but they figure to remain competitive on that side of the football regardless of the opponent. The offense, too, should get a boost under the guidance of Monken, who’s one of the best game planners and play callers in the game.
It’s the special teams that’s been a year-over-year disaster in Cleveland, with 2025 unceremoniously standing out above the rest. Monken recently hired Byron Storer to lead that group, and Browns fans didn’t really know how to react to the news.
Storer’s been mostly a career-long special teams assistant, but he coached under one of the NFL’s best in Rich Bisaccia, most recently with the Green Bay Packers. Monken made it clear that Packers head coach Matt LaFleur provided a key assist in Storer landing his first coordinator job.
Todd Monken landed his special teams coordinator with a huge assist from Matt LaFleur
The Packers notoriously struggle on special teams themselves, so Storer to the Browns wasn’t initially viewed as a match made in heaven.
Monken and the Browns are big on references, though, and LaFleur’s was impossible to ignore.
“Matt LaFleur just absolutely standing on the table for him was huge," Monken said. "Unbelievable presentation when we interviewed him, he was more than ready. It was obvious when I got done interviewing him that we had to have him here."
It’s worth noting that the Packers are currently searching for their own special teams coordinator after Bisaccia stepped down this week. The timeline there is questionable at best, because if the Packers had any sense that the 65-year-old Bisaccia was considering walking away, wouldn’t they have done everything possible to keep Storer in their building?
Ultimately, they couldn’t stop Storer from interviewing for a promotion, and Monken wasted no time poaching him and getting him to Cleveland.
Say what you will about Monken, but he’s shown conviction with every decision he's made so far as head coach of the Browns. His first staff wound up being a group literally no one predicted, and that could actually be a good sign for Browns fans as the team enters this new era.