Cleveland’s new head coach has quickly transformed the Browns into a resilient football team, fueled by Deshaun Watson’s late-game heroics, a prideful defense and a burgeoning culture of grit.
When Todd Monken was hired by the Cleveland Browns back in January, there were two massive undertakings he were due to come across his desk.
The first, and maybe the most obvious, was to fix an inept Browns' offense that averaged just 16.4 points per game in 2025 and struggled week-over-week to ever get off the ground. There have been some noticeable improvements there, but – understandably so – this overhauled unit is still a work in progress at the moment.
The second thing is something every coach is tasked with: building a unique, winning culture. Like Rome, that's not something that's built in a day. It takes time. But three games into his tenure as Cleveland's head coach, Monken's impact on the personality of his team is undeniable.
"I mean, ‘if you want to talk about resiliency, you want to talk about team, you want to talk about guys having each other’s back through thick and thin, similar to last week, you know, the ups and downs, the flow of an NFL game, kind of pick yourself up and find a way to go score at the end. And so what a great win for the Browns," Monken said to open his postgame press conference.
Resiliency is the perfect word. In back-to-back weeks with their backs against the wall, these Cleveland Browns have found a way to win, highlighted by the gutsy play of embattled quarterback Deshaun Watson's in the fourth quarter.
Last week, Watson's late-game heroics came in the form of a 12-play, 68-yard touchdown drive to put the Browns in front of the Buccaneers 23-19 and leave just 3:51 for Baker Mayfield to answer. He couldn't, even after a lengthy lightning delay held up the final two minutes of play, and Cleveland survived.
One week later, Watson was at it again. Despite the fact that he entered the fourth quarter with just 67 passing yards. Despite the fact that he'd completed just one pass to a wide receiver entering the final stanza. Despite the fact that the offense had gone three-and-out three times in the third quarter and amassed just eight yards of total offense.
There he was in the fourth quarter, completing 6-of-9 pass attempts, for 77 yards, rushing for another 21 yards and leading two scoring drives to lift the Browns to a 21-18 victory. The second one saw Watson escape a collapsed pocket to his left to keep the play alive, then lofting a perfect throw to young tight end Harold Fannin Jr. for a game-winning touchdown.
Watson has faced so much criticism for a forgettable first four years in Cleveland, leaving some uneasiness about how the fan base would greet him for the first home game of the season. In that moment, it all melted away and "Deshaun Watson" chants echoed through Huntington Bank Field.
"There was one moment where I got a little teary eyed, feeling that energy," Watson said. "I’ve put in so much work to get here, to be in this moment here and to be able to show I can finish these drives, and finish these games to get W’s for this city and this organization. This is what all the hard work, belief, prayers, everything that I have put myself through the last 22 months. To be able to stand in front of the crowd on that field and to finish the job."
In the fourth quarter each of these last two weeks, Watson is 20-of-22 passing, for 253 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. He's added 48 yards on the ground to boot.
For months, everyone has wondered if Watson could ever play competent football again, and while the overall tape still isn't pretty, he's shown up when it mattered most. It takes a special kind of mentality and perseverance to pull that off, and Monken has empowered him to find that in himself.
That "Monken edge" has also rubbed off on his defense. Last week, the 60-year-old boasted about the fact that there was no other unit he wanted out on the field to finish the game post-lightning delay than his defense. They delivered for him, halting Mayfield's last few gasps at the end zone to seal a win.
This week, he leaned on them for not one, but two critical stops in the final two minutes. The second of those came perhaps inadvertently, after Monken essentially gifted the Panthers a bonus possession by opting to go for it on 4th-and-1 from the Carolina 15, instead of kicking a field goal and failing to convert.
Mike Rutenberg's unit, after getting gashed by Bryce Young for what felt like a light-speed, quick, six-play, three-minute touchdown drive earlier in the quarter, didn't waver. They kept the pressure up and forced a wobbly interception to secure the victory.
"I got my hat backwards; it’s for Rudy. I don’t ever wear my hat backwards, but hats off to the defense," Monken said afterward. "I mean, this is what a great job they did. And it was really, we just, the second half for a while we couldn’t get any traction on offense, it felt a little like Jacksonville, man.
"We’re not able to take them off the field. It flipped. We had the possession the first half, we just didn’t in the second half. And what a great job there, what a great job for them, and happy for our players"
Fittingly, Friday's practice began with Journey's classic Don't Stop Believing booming on the speakers, a tune the players themselves couldn't resist singing along with as they broke the post-stretching huddle.
The moment perfectly encapsulates the mentality of Monken's Browns. He has this group believing that no matter what the scoreboard says, no matter what happened the play before, the series before, the quartwr before the week before, they'll find a way to win. "Just make a play," is what Watson said he told his teammates in the huddle continually through the fourth quarter.
That's not an easy trait to instill in a team, particularly one this young. The average age of this Browns roster is 25 and a half, but Monken has it, and his "broken" quarterback looking like the Patriots dynasty in crunch time. That's a dangerous thing.
We're just eight months into the Monken experience, but the early stages of the culture he's building are on full display and suddenly, his team is on the brink of something special.
