Todd Monken is back on the other sideline Sunday, and this time it is as the Cleveland Browns coach against the Baltimore Ravens, the team he guided for the previous three seasons. The matchup comes nine months after he left Baltimore and puts him in a 1 p.m. ET CBS game with first place in the AFC North hanging over it.
Monken spent three seasons as Baltimore's offensive coordinator before taking the Browns job in January, and that history is why this game has drawn so much attention. He helped Lamar Jackson win his second NFL Most Valuable Player award in 2023 and led the Ravens' offense to its first No. 1 ranking in the NFL in 2024, so his return carries more weight than a routine division meeting between a 3-2 team and a 4-1 team.
The Ravens are not treating it like just another coaching change. Marlon Humphrey said if he knows Monken the way he thinks he does, Monken will want to kick their tail. Derrick Henry was even more direct, saying Monken may not say it in the media but talks a lot of trash to the team and wants to beat the Ravens. That is the part Monken is trying to smooth over, saying he does not think it is awkward for them and that there was a lot of appreciation for him from the people in the building.
Rashod Bateman struck a more measured note, saying he felt Monken left on good terms and that players have to decide whether to make the game about Monken or about football. He added that Monken is focused on getting the Browns right to beat Baltimore, and that the respect is mutual. That balance fits the way Monken landed in the first place: he had his initial virtual meeting with the Browns while sitting in his Ravens office, and his exit followed conflicting reports about how things stood with players, especially Jackson.
For Monken, Sunday is less a reunion than a test of whether the Browns can turn a strong start into a division statement. For the Ravens, it is a chance to show their former coordinator that whatever he built in Baltimore no longer travels with him.
