Sean McDermott: How Todd Monken Has Won Over the Browns’ Locker Room

Sean McDermott spent nine years as head coach of the Buffalo Bills and eight as an NFL defensive coordinator. On The Rich Eisen Show, the morning after the Browns moved to 3-1 on Thursday Night Football, he broke down a sideline shouting match in Pittsburgh, a Cleveland locker room that has fully bought in, a Raiders team facing its biggest test yet, and a quarterback in New England who needs his coaches to keep believing.

McDermott started where Rich did, with Deshaun Watson. McDermott's first playoff game alongside Josh Allen came in Houston against Watson, and he admitted he had the same thought watching Thursday night.

"I was watching the game last night and I thought exactly that, Rich," McDermott said. "Going back to Deshaun in Houston and that's where he had his best years, right?"

He saw Watson extending plays, hitting his checkdown, pushing the ball downfield, and carrying it himself on the zone read. "Definitely reminiscent of what he was and how he played so well in Houston," McDermott said.

Rich is fascinated by Todd Monken, a first-time head coach laying down the law for players, as Rich put it, "damn near a third of his age." The nickname Rich spotted online was "Chill Parcells."

McDermott had a story nobody saw coming. He did not really know Monken, but Monken reached out around early March with a question McDermott had never been asked in nine seasons as a head coach. Monken wanted to know about McDermott's first team meeting in Buffalo in 2017, and how he connected the building so every department felt valued, not just the football side.

"What struck me about it was how vulnerable one has to be to reach out to a peer about a question like a team meeting, especially when he just got his job," McDermott said. "I found that very humbling on his part."

That vulnerability, McDermott believes, is what the Browns see every day. "The locker room values and respects and buying in increases when you're your true authentic self," he said. Then came Mike Tomlin's Browns comment a few weeks ago, which McDermott called "a gift" dropped into Monken's lap. "Every coach loves to be doubted. The locker room loves to be doubted," he said. Going through that together, with a new staff and new faces, brought Cleveland out better. "You could just tell that they're all together, they're bought in and they're on a roll."

Rich, a known friend of kickers, did not love Monken begrudgingly handing his kicker a game ball and then kicking him out of the huddle. McDermott laughed. "It's old school. It's new school. It's an interesting school to say the least."

Then there was the drive where the play call apparently was not arriving fast enough for Aaron Rodgers, who made his displeasure profanely clear, and Mike McCarthy's response needed no master's degree in lip reading. McDermott's first answer: "I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't see anything."

After the laugh, he got real. With more cameras on the sideline, very little stays hidden. "It's a good thing they don't have recordings of the coach's headsets because it's even less G-rated than what we experienced last night," he said.

McDermott framed it through his own childhood. "I grew up with a brother. We go out in the backyard. We think it's going to be a football game. It turns into a wrestling match. I've got him in a headlock. He's got me in a headlock. But then about two hours later, we're sharing a meal at the same dinner table. So, that's kind of how I view that relationship."

Rich pushed. Is there a germ of truth in it that could grind gears by December? McDermott did not budge. Fans do not see the Monday through Saturday process, and he guaranteed McCarthy and Rodgers are in meetings together, talking and maybe even joking about what happens on game days. "They know each other's strengths, but they also know each other's weaknesses, which is powerful," he said. He also pointed out the two were seen smiling after a later series, in a game the Steelers nearly won.

Asked for the best team he has seen three-plus weeks in, McDermott started with Kansas City. He spent 12 years with Andy Reid and still marvels at how Reid adapts year to year, with a new running back in the offense, Patrick Mahomes under center, and Steve Spagnuolo's defense. He named the Bills next, a team that was "an inch away from the AFC Championship game" last year and has gotten younger at certain spots. Then he added the 3-0 Raiders.

Are they for real? McDermott credited Klint Kubiak with changing the environment and the belief inside the building, and said the locker room believing is the key first step. Now comes the reality check: the Chiefs coming to Las Vegas.

"This is one of those buy-in moments for the Raiders whereby they win this game," McDermott said. "Not only have they finished off the buy-in with the locker room, but the buy-in spreads to every corner of the building at that point and then goes into the community as well." Part of the job, he said, is "to provide hope to a community and you do that by winning."

He knows the feeling. In 2017, his first season, his Bills went to Kansas City and beat Andy Reid's Chiefs on the road while chasing a playoff berth the franchise had not reached in 17 seasons. Coordinating producer Mike Hoskins chimed in that the win came right after the five-interception Nathan Peterman game. McDermott recalled even the Buffalo beat reporters starting to believe. The flip side is the "here we go again" moment, where a team leads a historically great opponent and finds a way to lose. That is what the Raiders are playing against this weekend.

On his old team, McDermott called it "a Josh Allen-led team" that is scoring plenty and spreading the ball around. The defense has had good moments and some it would like back, which he called natural. He singled out Deone Walker and Greg Rousseau and said he expects great things to continue for both. The key, he said, is getting the communication between the front and the back seven ironed out. "I'm sure they will."

Sean McVay's Rams thought cornerback Josh Wallace had sealed Sunday night's game in Denver with an interception, until a pass interference flag wiped it out. McVay later said the league told him it was not pass interference. McDermott made the obvious point first: "It doesn't change the result."

He walked through what happens inside a building. The league mandates a 24-hour cooling off period "for good reason," because it is an emotional game. Then either the head coach calls, sometimes with the GM or even the owner sitting in, or the league reaches out to the club. The real goal, he said, is alignment on how calls will be made going forward. "Nobody expects the officials to be perfect. It's a tough job," he said, but consistency game to game has to remain the goal.

Did he ever give the league the old what for? "They didn't always see the best version of me on Monday mornings," McDermott admitted. But every Friday he took the message back to his players on how plays would be officiated, because knowing the rules "allows the players to play fast and free."

Rich snuck in one more. With Drake Maye bringing the Patriots to Buffalo and not looking like last year's quarterback, did the Bills ever deal with a crisis of confidence from Allen? "Never," McDermott said. "Josh is naturally a confident person."

The lesson he took from his time with Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb is that belief in the quarterback can never waver. That job is different from any other in the NFL, he said, even more than the head coach's, because the quarterback is the face of the franchise. "Obviously Maye is going through some of the downs right now, but he's got a great coaching staff around him," McDermott said, naming Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels. "He's obviously got the skill. He's shown it before and so this game this weekend will be a great opportunity for him to get back on track."