BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Todd Monken has five months before his first game as head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
However, two traits have been apparent since he was introduced on Feb. 3.
Monken tries to keep his message and goals simple.
When asked what his message was as the Browns began their offseason workout program, Monken said on Wednesday, “We’re in the development business and the winning business. Point blank, period.”
Reigning AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett was among the players not in attendance. However, he typically doesn’t show up until late in OTAs or the mandatory minicamp.
Monken and his staff have plenty to accomplish over the next two months. Most notably, they must determine who has the edge at quarterback heading into training camp.
Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson and Dillon Gabriel are in attendance for the first week of the voluntary workouts.
Sanders started last season’s final seven games, going 3-4 with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Watson has gone 9-10 as Cleveland’s starter with 19 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and an 80.7 passer rating. He has not played since Week 7 of the 2024 season after tearing his Achilles tendon twice.
Gabriel started six games, going 1-5 with seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
“There’s enough there to really like Deshaun and the way he plays. There’s enough there to really like the way Shedeur played at the back end of the year. And there’s enough early in the year from Dillon that is playing the position at a very high level,” Monken said.
“Someone’s going to have to start off first, and someone’s going to go second, and someone’s going to go third. Then we’ll be willing to switch that. That’s easily, on a daily basis, what we see, just like any position, that’s not set in stone.”
In addition to getting up to speed on the playbook, Monken said the important thing in the first two weeks is for players to work on their individual techniques before honing in on the scheme.
Monken also has to deal with the perception that the Browns are a dysfunctional organization that cannot get simple things right. This flared up again at last week’s league meetings when Monken missed the coach’s photo because he was getting a haircut during it.
Monken is the seventh coach hired by Dee and Jimmy Haslam since they bought the franchise in 2012. The Browns have a 73-139-1 regular-season record since 2013, the second-worst mark in the NFL.
Cleveland has just four winning seasons since returning to the NFL in 1999.
Monken said he did not care about the criticism and claimed the meeting was moved up.
“Was it disappointing? You bet your (butt) it was disappointing. Waited my whole life to be a head coach, and I’m not in the head coaches’ picture? You think with AI, they could have done that quickly and got me in there? But no, it’s the way it is,” he said. “What changes everything? Winning changes everything. I told the coaches that the other day, right? That’s what we have to do. It’s real simple.”
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Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken speaks with reporters at the NFL football annual meetings, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken speaks to reporters at the NFL football annual meetings, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, over the course of a single day, went from threatening Iran with “annihilation” to proclaiming that the battered Islamic Republic's leadership had presented a “workable” plan that led him to agree to a 14-day ceasefire that he hopes will pave the way to end the nearly six-week war.
The dramatic shift in tenor came as intermediaries led by Pakistan worked feverishly to head off a further escalation. Even China, Iran's biggest trading partner and America's most significant economic competitor, quietly pulled strings to find a path toward a ceasefire, according to two officials briefed on the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” Trump said in a social media post Tuesday announcing the temporary ceasefire. It came about 90 minutes before his deadline for Tehran to open the critical Strait of Hormuz or see its power plants and other critical infrastructure obliterated.
But even as the White House was celebrating the moment as a victory, the fragile ceasefire appeared in danger of falling apart as the U.S., Iran and Israel offered differing statements on Wednesday on what was included in the deal less than 24 hours after it was brokered.
Iran insisted that an end to the Israeli war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement with the U.S. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon and the Israeli operations there continued.
The U.S., meanwhile, demanded that Iran make good on reopening the strait after the Islamic Republic closed the waterway in response to Israel's intensifying attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
Vice President JD Vance, who is set to lead a U.S. delegation to Pakistan later this week for mediated talks with Iran aimed at finding a permanent agreement to end the conflict, downplayed the setbacks, saying “no ceasefire ever goes without a little bit of choppiness.”
“We’re seeing evidence that things are going in the right direction, but it’s going to take a little time,” Vance told reporters as he wrapped up a visit to Hungary.
The president also met at the White House with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday. Trump has been angry that NATO member countries ignored his call to help reopen the vital waterway as gas prices soared during the war.
As the Trump deadline for Iran to open the strait neared, Democratic lawmakers decried Trump's threat to wipe away an entire civilization as “a moral failure." Pope Leo XIV warned that strikes against civilian infrastructure would violate international law and said the Republican president's comments were “truly unacceptable.”
In the end, Trump may have backed down because of a simple truth: Escalation could risk involving the United States in the sort of “forever war” that had bedeviled his predecessors in the White House and that he had vowed he would keep the U.S. out of if voters elected him again.
As Trump boasted about U.S. and Israeli military success over the past six weeks, he appeared to be working from the premise that he could bomb Iran into capitulation.
Starting with the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening salvos, he seemed to discount that the Iranian leadership could opt for a long and bloody war.
The Islamic Republic over the past 47 years has shown it is willing to dig in, even when it appears to America to be working against its own self-interest.
The clerical leadership held Americans hostage for 444 days, from late 1979 to early 1981, at the cost of the country’s international standing. The mullahs allowed the Iran-Iraq war to go on for years, leaving hundreds of thousands dead. Iran stood by Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ultimately defanged the Iran-backed group in Gaza as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon, and created the conditions that led to the collapse of Bashar Assad's government in Syria, an authoritarian rule supported by Tehran.
Iran's leadership exuded confidence that it could bog down the world's superpower in a costly and extended conflict even if it might not defeat the U.S. military.
Defense analysts largely agreed that the U.S. military could quickly take control of the narrow Persian Gulf waterway between Iran and Oman through which roughly 20% of the world's oil flows on any given day. But maintaining security over the strait would require a high-risk, resource-intensive operation that could be a yearslong American commitment.
Ben Connable, executive director of the nonprofit Battle Research Group, said securing the strait would require the U.S. military to maintain control of about 600 kilometers (373 miles) of Iranian territory, from Kish Island in the west to Bandar Abbas in the east, in order to stop Iran from firing missiles at passing ships. It is a mission that Connable said would likely require three U.S. infantry divisions, roughly 30,000 to 45,000 troops.
“This would be an indefinite operation — so, you know, think: be ready to do this for 20 years,” said Connable, a retired Marine Corps intelligence officer. “We didn't think we were going to be in Afghanistan for 20 years. We didn’t think we’re going to have to be in Vietnam as long as we were, or Iraq.”
The two-week ceasefire includes allowing both Iran and Oman to charge fees on ships transiting through Hormuz, a regional official said. The official said Iran would use the money it raised for reconstruction.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday noted that Trump has considered the idea of a toll for vessels passing through the strait. But in the near term, his priority “is the reopening of the strait without any limitations, whether in the form of tolls or otherwise.”
The White House confirmed that Vance will lead the U.S. negotiating team in talks with Iran aimed at finding a permanent end to war.
The delegation is also expected to include special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The talks are expected to begin Friday in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
“Vice President Vance has played a very significant and a key role in this since the very beginning,” Leavitt said.
Trump’s deadline was nearing with no resolution in sight when Vance, who has long pushed for restraint in U.S. military intervention overseas, got roped into the conversation, according to an official from one of the mediating countries who was briefed on the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive diplomatic discussions.
Vance expressed measured confidence that a permanent deal could reached if the Iranians act in good faith.
“I encourage the Iranians to come to the table seriously," Vance said. “We’ve seen some signs that they’re going to do that, we’ve seen some signs of bravado. Fundamentally, we're in a good spot.”
Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writers Collin Binkley and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Justin Spike in Budapest and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Vice President JD Vance speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two to return to Washington, at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, is joined by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, left, for a photo opportunity at the State Department, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A zoom lens and slow shutter speed technique shows President Donald Trump speaking with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, speaks at Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP)
The White House is seen in Washington, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. EDT. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
