CLEVELAND (AP) — Todd Monken started the process of filling out his first coaching staff with the Cleveland Browns by naming his coordinators on Friday.
Travis Switzer was named offensive coordinator, Mike Rutenberg will direct the defense and Byron Storer will be the special teams coordinator.
This is Monken’s first NFL head coaching job after 11 years as an assistant. He spent the previous three seasons as Baltimore’s offensive coordinator.
Switzer was the run game coordinator in Baltimore the past three seasons. During that span, the Ravens led the league in rushing yards (166.9 per game), average rushing yards per carry (5.31) and rushes of 10-plus yards (230).
The Ravens also had the league’s top-ranked offense in 2024, becoming the first team in NFL history with at least 4,000 passing and 3,000 rushing yards in a season.
Switzer went to college at Akron and has spent his entire NFL coaching career in Baltimore, starting as an administrative/performance staff assistant in 2017.
It will be the fourth straight season the Browns have had a different offensive coordinator. Monken, however, will call the offensive plays.
Monken and Switzer will need to determine the starting quarterback. The Browns have had a league-high 13 quarterbacks since 2020, including seven over the past two seasons.
Shedeur Sanders started the final seven games, going 3-4. He had a 56.6% completion rate and a 68.1 passer rating with 1,400 passing yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Deshaun Watson has played in only 19 games since being acquired in 2022. He has gone 9-10 as Cleveland’s starter with 19 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and an 80.7 passer rating. He did not play in 2025 while rehabbing from a torn Achilles tendon.
Dillon Gabriel, last year’s third-round pick who started six games, is also on the roster.
Rutenberg replaces Jim Schwartz, who resigned after being passed over for the head coach opening. Monken said in a statement that Rutenberg has been in systems similar to Schwartz “but not the exact system because Jim was unique.”
“They can say attacking style, but then there’s attacking style, which is what they’ve done here up front,” Monken said. “I think that background of being a four-down attacking style, but not exact, (and) to add some things that they had done before that I thought would mesh really well with the current staff, was a big part of that.”
Schwartz was the architect of one of the league’s top defenses the past three seasons. Cleveland led the league in total defense in 2023 and ranked fourth this season as Myles Garrett had 23 sacks and broke the NFL single-season record.
Garrett was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year and linebacker Carson Schwesinger the Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Rutenberg — who was Atlanta’s defensive pass game coordinator this past season — has 16 years of NFL experience. He came into the league as a player personnel intern and assistant to the head coach in Washington (2003-05) along with stops in Jacksonville (2013-19), San Francisco (2020) and the new York Jets (2021-24).
Storer has coached in the NFL for 12 years, including the past four as the assistant special teams coach in Green Bay. Storer has also coached in Tampa Bay (2010-11), San Diego (2012-13) and the Raiders (2018-21). He stepped way from coaching for four years to help start a new branch of his family’s transportation business in San Francisco.
Storer replaces Bubba Ventrone, who was Cleveland’s special teams coordinator the past three seasons before heading to the Los Angeles Rams.
Even though the NFL scouting combine begins next week, Monken said during his introductory news conference that there wasn’t a deadline to get his entire coaching staff hired.
“I don’t control that. I mean we’re going to vet as many candidates as we can to get it right,” he said. “I think, just like they all vetted for the head coach coaching position, don’t get worn out — make sure you get the right people at the start, and that’s what we’re going to do. So, there is no timeline to get it right.”
___
