Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken ended the team’s Tuesday training camp practice early after growing frustrated with defenders playing with some reckless physicality against their own offense. The moment was noteworthy because up until that point, Monken has been a coach who has pushed physicality.
During his first year as a head coach in the NFL, Monken has quickly developed a reputation for putting his team through tough practices. The 60-year-old coach has been characterized as someone with an old-school mentality, taking the Browns through long, full-padded practices, with a lot of competitive periods.
Monken has made it a habit to use every minute available, get in full pads whenever allowed, and get the Cleveland offense and defense facing off against each other as much as possible. Browns media members have noted that it’s been a much tougher camp than Cleveland is used to seeing, and that speaks to the culture Monken is establishing.
Players have to take to that culture for it to actually cement, and it seems like that’s exactly what’s happening. On Wednesday, second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders was asked about Monken’s philosophy of practicing so hard, and the young quarterback agreed that is exactly what the Browns need because of the team’s youth and lack of success in recent years.
"I think coach came in here understanding that we have a ways to go, overall, when it comes to our wins and losses over the past few years and everything," Sanders said. "So it’s kind of like building that mentality of toughness. Some places may have that luxury to not have to do that, but it’s more about a deserved thing. I don’t think we deserve to take as many days off like that, because we have a lot of young players on offense and young players on the team. We gotta be able to expedite the process on catching up with the game speed and really understanding the game."
Browns players have already bought into Todd Monken’s culture
Monken is absolutely right to have this approach, and Sanders details all the reasons why. This is a young team that doesn’t know anything about winning at the NFL level. Training camp is supposed to be hard so that it gives this talented but young roster some adversity to overcome, so that they can handle tough experiences when the season actually starts.
As Sanders pointed out, Cleveland doesn’t have the luxury of experience or success on its side. The Browns aren’t a veteran team that can just manage getting through training camp, because they know what it takes to win in the regular season. They don’t have any idea, and that’s why Cleveland has to go through the fire in camp.
While Sanders and his teammates are all aboard for this approach, the quarterback admits that it is a challenging path. However, the team is committed to the path, because they understand where it’s leading them.
"It’s a thing that sometimes you may feel a way about it, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s moving towards a direction of where we’re trying to get as a franchise and as a team. As long as everything’s aligned with that, then that’s how you know what’s good and what’s not good. That’s very good for us because we need to be able to go out there and execute regardless of age and regardless of experience."
The Browns understand that they will be young and inexperienced in 2026, but they are already making it clear that won’t be used as an excuse. What the Browns lack in experience, they are determined to make up in hard work. Time will tell just how much of the experience gap this tough training camp will close.
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