Coach Todd Monken’s Photo Shoot Folly Shows Browns Are Still The Browns

PHOENIX — The Cleveland Browns have been quite entertaining during these NFL annual meetings — regardless of the fact it has been for the wrong reasons — and the latest mishap by coach Todd Monken is perhaps indicative of what's going on.

Every year at the meetings, the NFL stages a photo shoot of all the league's coaches and another of all the league's general managers. It's a preserving posterity thing.

Monken Misses Coaches Photo

Monken, in his first season as the Browns coach, wanted to look just right for the photo scheduled for Monday afternoon. So he booked a haircut for the occasion. But Monken missed the photo shoot.

Because he was getting his haircut while the photo was being taken.

This gets better. Or worse, for Monken.

The coach rightly understood the photo session to happen at noon after a scheduled coaches' session. Except that session let out early, so the photo was taken earlier.

Monken skipped that session… so he could get his hair cut.

Don't feel badly for Monken. He's actually fitting in to the Browns culture quite nicely, as the club's representatives at these meetings do and say one curious thing after another.

Owner of the Cleveland Browns Jimmy Haslam.  (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Watson From Browns Zero To Hero?

We start with owner Jimmy Haslam, who met with reporters on Monday and told them he believes erstwhile starting quarterback Deshaun Watson has "a great chance" to be a success for the team under Monken.

"We're all excited," Haslam said.

This is fine except that it is the exact opposite of what Haslam said about Watson at the 2025 annual meeting when he dejectedly labeled Watson "a swing and a miss" as an addition after years punctuated by an NFL suspension, injuries and disappointing play.

The club's owner has gone from thinking his QB is a swing and a miss to a possible home run after Watson played exactly zero snaps in 2025 while rehabilitating not one but two Achilles tears.

There is nothing quite so troubling as a double-minded NFL owner.

Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

So, Browns Not Trading Garrett

Earlier this week, general manager Andrew Berry seemed to struggle to make the point that Myles Garrett would not be traded. Like, he could never bring himself to simply utter the words, "Garrett will not be traded."

Haslam threw his no-trade challenged GM a lifesaver — sort of.

"Guys like Myles Garrett do not come along very much," the owner told local reporters. "They just don't. They don't come along. He is a unicorn. And Myles is an integral part of what we do at the Cleveland Browns."

That's as close the Browns have come to dousing the Garrett trade rumors. That actually sounds like something a functional team might say.

But the rest of the stuff at this meeting?

The Browns are acting like the Browns.