BEREA — The best player on the Cleveland Browns hasn’t, technically, made an official statement about the hiring of new head coach Todd Monken. At least, one where Myles Garrett has directly mentioned the new head coach’s name and verbally giving his approval or disapproval.

There’s the Instagram story he posted some 11 hours after Monken’s hiring Jan. 28 showing a Popeye’s worker sitting hunched over on a bench. A number of people took that as the All-Pro defensive end’s statement on the situation, although there’s been nothing subsequent to provide any further context.

Garrett was vocally suportive of defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz getting a head-coaching job late in the season. Schwartz remains under contract for 2026, with a club option for 2027, but nothing’s been resolved in terms of his actual desire to return to the organization.

“I love Myles,” owner Jimmy Haslam said after Monken’s Feb. 3 introductory press conference. “I haven’t talked to him since the day after the season, but I’m highly confident Myles will come in here and break the sack record again and be the defensive player (of the year). He hasn’t been named it, but I’ll be shocked if he isn’t. And he will be a leader of our team.”

Haslam said that he and managing partner JW Johnson III spoke with “30 to 40 players” after firing Kevin Stefanski Jan. 5. However, he said did not have any contact during the actual search process.

General manager Andrew Berry also dismissed the Instagram post. However, he did acknowledge that Garrett wasn’t kept in the dark over the course of the search.

“Yeah, I didn’t see it to be honest,” Berry said. “We kept Myles abreast of the process throughout, so he, Myles, knew the news before you all did. Myles is a great team player and we’re not worried about that.”

Monken wasn’t specifically asked during his introductory press conference about any interactions with Garrett since being hired. He certainly had plenty to say about the presumptive favorite to be the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year when the award’s announced on Feb. 5, which coincidentally is Monken’s birthday.

The two crossed paths in Cleveland in 2019, when Monken was the offensive coordinator under Freddie Kitchens. However, his role was much different then with responsibilities on just one side of the football compared to now, where the whole roster is under his perview.

“Well, when I was here for that short period, I would say that I didn’t know Myles very well, other than I loved his personality, I loved his charisma,” Monken said of Garrett. “I mean, always a smile on his face. At that time I thought, ‘holy cow, this guy runs like a wideout, this guy looks like a skill player.’ I mean, this guy is elite, and he’s always had it in him.”

The last three seasons as the Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator, Monken had the unenviable task of trying to scheme up ways to prevent Garrett from wreaking havoc on his offense. The two times the Ravens played the Browns in 2025 were especially hard for Baltimore, with Garrett recording a combined 5.5 sacks, including four of Jackson in a Week 11 game in Cleveland.

Those games have given Monken a chance to see the growth of Garrett as a player, with eight combined sacks in six games. At least, a chance to see it from the other side of the field.

“But you can just see the last few years that his evolution, in terms of blocking schemes, how teams try to prevent him from getting to the quarterback, which opens up opportunities for others,” Monken said. “I think his awareness of what teams are trying to do … I think they’ve done a great job of moving him around because that’s important. That definitely gets into a coordinator’s head in game planning of where he’s located. You can see with every team that plays against Myles.”

Garrett is coming off a NFL single-season record 23 sacks. He also led the league with 33 tackles for loss, the second-highest single-season total in league history.

The three years with Schwartz saw Garrett record 51 sacks in that span along with an NFL-leading 72 tackles for loss. It why Monken acknowledged one benefit to now being the Browns head coach instead of preparing to face the Browns twice a season.

“It’ll be more fun to not have to worry about chipping 95 every down and distance, I can tell you that,” Monken said.