Todd Monken helped transform the Baltimore Ravens offense into one of the NFL's most efficient units over the past three seasons. His ability to blend a physical rushing attack with explosive downfield passing helped unlock career-best stretches from players like Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews. Now he takes over in Cleveland, where some of the league's most intriguing training camp storylines will unfold. By the end of training camp, there will be a winner in the Watson-Sanders battle for QB1. Additionally, we'll have definitive answers as to whether or not Monken's approach, which features Air Coryell vertical passing game principles, brings much-needed juice to the Browns offense.
Dave Richard has ranked all 18 new play-callers from worst for Fantasy to best, and we're going team by team through his rankings to see how your perception of every key player should change before Fantasy football draft season. Up next at No. 9: Todd Monken and the Browns.
Who's new?
Todd Monken is the Browns new head coach, coming from the rival Ravens, where he was their playcaller for three seasons. He's been a football coach since 1993.
What's expected this year?
Monken is a chameleon. He called the run-heavy, tight-end focused offenses we've come to know from Baltimore, but was far more pass-friendly when he coached previously in Cleveland and Tampa Bay. The only near-constants from Monken were an emphasis on downfield throwing, which is part and parcel with the Air Coryell offense he teaches, and a lack of running back targets -- just once did his RBs see a target rate higher than 17.9% (22.2% in Cleveland 2019).
Winners and losers for Fantasy
One thing the Browns did this offseason was add fullback Mike Burton, signaling similarities with the run game from what Monken did in Baltimore. Quinshon Judkins had just 31 carries with a teammate at fullback (sometimes it was a tight end or a big man), but he averaged nearly a yard more per rush with better rush EPA marks, a considerably higher success rate, and a modestly higher explosive run rate than when he ran without someone. A professional fullback in Burton could yield even better results.
Only Mike Evans (2016, 2018) averaged over 15 PPR points in Monken's offenses, but Jarvis Landry (2019) and Zay Flowers (2025) were between 14 and 15 PPR points per game. All four had at least 6.9 targets per game, but only Flowers had less than eight per game. For what it's worth, I thought K.C. Concepcion moved a lot like Flowers before the draft, and Boston's game is comparable to a poor man's Evans.
I'd be surprised if Monken got away from Harold Fannin. He was just too good last year and can not only build on this year but potentially do so with better teammates who will force defenses to give them serious attention. He might dominate short targets and put up big-time YAC numbers. Monken has culled 11-plus PPR-point average tight ends in Tampa Bay (Cameron Brate in 2016, O.J. Howard in 2018), and Baltimore (Mark Andrews, 2023 and 2024).
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