MONKEN WANTS A TEAM NOBODY WANTS TO PLAY — AND WE’RE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

Todd Monken held his first press conference of the 2026 offseason program yesterday and honestly? He said everything I needed to hear. Not in a hype, tell-me-what-I-want-to-hear kind of way. In a real, this-man-actually-gets-it kind of way.

Two things stood out to me above everything else. Let me break them down.

“A Team Nobody Wants to Play”

When Monken was asked about the identity of this football team, he didn’t give a long drawn-out answer about systems and schemes. He said something simple that hit different.

He talked about principles being set in stone — smart, physical, unbelievable effort, execution that pops off the tape. And then he landed on this: what are we trying to establish? A team that nobody wants to play.

That’s it. That’s the vision.

And here’s what gets me fired up about that statement — we are already closer to that than people want to admit. The defensive side of the ball? We’re already there. Myles Garrett just set the single-season franchise sack record with 23 sacks. Maliek Collins was having an All-Pro level season before the quad injury cut him short — 6.5 sacks in just 12 games. Mason Graham looked like a foundational piece as a rookie. Carson Schwesinger won Defensive Rookie of the Year. Denzel Ward bounced back. This defense, when healthy, is already a top-3 unit in the NFL.

Nobody wants to deal with that front. Nobody wants Myles Garrett hunting their quarterback for four quarters. That part of Monken’s vision? Already built.

The missing piece has always been the offense. And this is where it gets interesting. If this team can develop a top-10 offense under Monken — an offensive-minded head coach who spent years in Baltimore helping build one of the most efficient offenses in the league — and start putting up 23, 24 points a game consistently? Think about what that looks like.

You’re asking opposing teams to outscore a top-3 defense AND keep up with a functional, high-powered offense in the same game. That’s a nightmare matchup. That’s a team nobody wants to see on their schedule. That’s what Monken is building toward and the blueprint is already halfway finished.

The defense is done. Now it’s time to build the other side.

He Wants Players Who Can Fire the Gun — Not Just Describe It

One of the most underrated things Monken said in this whole presser was about his coaching philosophy for Phase One. He doesn’t want his coaches spending time on formations, motions, and alignment memorization. He wants players to study that on their own. What he wants his coaches doing is teaching players HOW to execute — not the history of the play, but how to run it at full speed.

“I don’t want to teach them formations. They can study that. We want our coaches to be able to coach how to do it and show it visually. Ultimately, we want to teach them how to fire the gun.”

That’s a sharp offensive mind talking. And it tells you what kind of players are going to thrive under Monken — guys who do their homework, come in prepared, and are ready to be coached on execution. Not guys who need their hand held through the basics

The QB Room — More Encouraging Than Expected

The other thing Monken addressed was the quarterback competition, and I thought his answer was more balanced and encouraging than a lot of people are going to give him credit for.

When asked if he had an inkling of who would lead the reps coming out of Day 1, he said no — not really. And then he said something that caught my attention. He specifically named all three quarterbacks and found something positive to say about each one.

He said there’s enough on tape to really like the way Deshaun Watson plays. There’s enough there to really like the way Shedeur played at the back end of last year. And there’s enough early in the year from Dillon Gabriel that shows a guy playing the position at a very high level.

All three. By name. With genuine praise.

He also made it clear that Day 1 in the meeting rooms gave him exactly what he wanted. He said he was fired up — all three guys came in bright-eyed and wanting to learn. You couldn’t ask for a better start in that QB room.

Now look — meetings are not football. Nobody’s throwing routes against a live defense yet. But the attitude you bring into a room in April says something about who you are as a competitor. All three of those guys showed up ready to work on the first day. That matters.

Monken was also crystal clear about one thing — the reps aren’t going to be divided evenly, but that doesn’t mean the competition isn’t real. He said it plainly: it’s not about where you start, it’s about where you finish. The players decide who plays, not the coaches. And ultimately, whoever the team believes in when the game is on the line — third downs, fourth downs, two-minute drill — that’s going to be the guy.

That’s a fair system. Earn it. Show it. Win it.

The Bottom Line

Todd Monken walked into that press conference as a first-time NFL head coach and sounded like a man who’s been waiting his whole life for this moment and knows exactly what to do with it. No fluff. No excuses. A team that nobody wants to play. That’s the goal.

We already have the defense to back that up. Now it’s time to build the offense that makes this thing complete.

The pieces are closer than people think. The draft is 14 days away. The voluntary minicamp is in under two weeks. This thing is moving fast.

Stay locked in, CrocPot. It’s just getting started.

— Chef Zae | The CrocPot Podcast

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