Todd Monken wanted Joe Thomas on his staff from day one. Thomas said no — but not for the reason you’d think.
The Browns head coach revealed Thursday that he reached out to the Hall of Fame left tackle back in January, right as he was landing the job, with a full-time coaching offer. Thomas turned it down. He just wasn’t ready to sign up for the grind of an everyday contract.
Monken laid out the exchange himself after Thursday’s practice, according to Pro Football Talk. “Well, when I was interviewing for the job and then when I got the job, I reached out to Joe,” Monken said. “Joe, obviously, played for [offensive line coach] George Warhop as well. And I said, hey, we’ve got a spot for you if you want to help us coach.”
Thomas’s answer wasn’t a hard pass. It was closer to a maybe-later. “He said, ‘I’d love to coach,'” Monken recalled. “He said, ‘I don’t think I want to commit to an everyday contract.'” Monken told him the door stays open. “Anytime you want to come out and help our guys, you’re more than welcome. And we certainly would welcome him.”
That framing lines up with what Andrew Siciliano first flagged on X on Thursday: “Todd Monken says he offered Joe Thomas a full-time coaching job back in January” —
Todd Monken says he offered @joethomas73 a full-time coaching job back in January.
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) August 6, 2026
though it took Monken’s own press conference remarks to confirm Thomas actually declined the everyday role rather than the offer simply going unaddressed.
Why Monken went after Thomas specifically
The pitch wasn’t random. Thomas spent five seasons playing for Warhop when Warhop ran Cleveland’s offensive line from 2009 to 2013, and Thomas earned Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors in every one of those years. Warhop has publicly credited that stretch for shaping Thomas into the player who went on to make ten straight Pro Bowls. Bringing Thomas back into the room wasn’t just a symbolic gesture — Monken wanted the built-in trust between player and position coach that already existed.
Warhop, now 30 years into his NFL coaching career and one of Monken’s first hires this offseason, made his own case for Thomas’s value this week. He didn’t mince words about it, telling reporters that any current Browns tackle who doesn’t pick Thomas’s brain is making a mistake. Thomas has quietly been doing exactly that kind of work anyway — he’s mentored former starters Jedrick Wills Jr. and Dawand Jones in recent years, and has shown up to help coach during training camp on his own terms since retiring in 2017.
Thomas is still around, just not on the clock
With the No. 9 overall pick in this year’s draft, Cleveland took offensive tackle Spencer Fano, who’s now competing with Jones for the starting left tackle job. Thomas visited camp this week specifically to work with that group, according to Heavy.com, and Monken said he’d welcome that kind of drop-in help anytime.
Between coordinators, position coaches and support staff, Monken’s current staff runs 39 people deep, with George Warhop, Sanders Davis and Bobby Johnson handling the offensive line day to day. Thomas isn’t replacing any of them. He’s operating more like an on-call resource — the guy who shows up during camp, watches tape with the tackles, and leaves before the season workload kicks in.
Away from football, Thomas has built a second act at Hall of Fame Farms in Wisconsin, where he raises Wagyu cattle. He also works Browns broadcasts as an analyst during the season. A full-time coaching title would have meant giving that up for long weeks in Berea. Understandably, he wasn’t ready to make that trade — at least not yet.
Monken landed the Browns job in late January, replacing Kevin Stefanski, who was let go after a 5-12 season and later took the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator job. It’s Monken’s first NFL head-coaching gig after three seasons running Baltimore’s offense under John Harbaugh. Turning a Hall of Fame legend into a full-time assistant would have been a nice early win. Instead, he got something arguably more sustainable — a Hall of Famer who shows up when it actually helps, no hard feelings either way.
