Browns’ Finalized 2026 Coaching Staff Updates
Earlier this month, the Browns announced their finalized coaching staff under new head coach Todd Monken. Many of the bigger coaching hirings and changes were covered in earlier posts as they occurred, but here is the new information gleaned from the team’s March announcement. 
The biggest piece of new information was that defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire has been retained in his role for his third year with the Browns and his seventh in the NFL. It comes with little surprise as he joins a crew of familiar faces also retained on the defensive side of the ball and returns to coach over two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett. The only other new information regarding a position coach concerns new tight ends coach Jeff Blasko. We were aware that Blasko had been hired to the role, but the announcement revealed that he will also hold the title of run game coordinator.
Three assistant position coaches were announced as new information. John Wozniak was hired to serve as the Browns’ new assistant wide receivers coach. Coming into his first NFL coaching gig, Wozniak brings 25 years of experience at the collegiate level including position coaching roles at UAB, Southern Miss, and Oklahoma State. On defense, Ralph Street was announced as the new assistant defensive line coach. He’ll arrive in Cleveland after five years as defensive line coach and run game coordinator at Marshall, where Ravens outside linebacker Mike Green led the NCAA with 17.0 sacks in 2024.
Additionally, Keith Tandy was hired as assistant special teams coach. The former NFL safety joins the Browns after serving in the same role for the past six seasons in Tampa Bay. There was also an update that changes the reported role of a presumed position coach. Originally, it was believed that defensive quality control coach Jeff Anderson had been promoted to nickelbacks coach. The team’s announcement clarifies that, while he has been promoted, his new title is defensive assistant/nickelbacks.
Joining Anderson is Zach Dunn, who was announced as defensive assistant/assistant linebackers coach. Dunn has been with Cleveland as a defensive assistant since 2020, and after working with Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger last year, the assistant linebackers coach duties have been added to his plate. On the offensive side of the ball, it was initially reported that assistant offensive line coach Sanders Davis had been retained in his role. The new announcement informs that his title has been adjusted to offensive assistant/offensive line.
The last pieces of new information come in the smaller roles on the coaching staff. On offense, we knew that Ian Kolste was joining Monken in the move from Baltimore to Cleveland, but we didn’t yet know his title. We now know that Kolste will be an offensive quality control coach. Additionally, Dom Borsani has been named an offensive analyst. Borsani has spent three years with the Browns, previously serving as a research and coaching analyst. He’s joined in his new role by Travis Monken. Son of the new boss, the junior Monken has two years of experience as an offensive quality control coach at Purdue.
Likewise, on defense, former NFL linebacker Paul Worrilow has been named a defensive quality control coach. Following his eight-year career playing for the Falcons, Lions, Eagles, Ravens, and Jets, Worrilow has spent the past four years as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Delaware. Lastly, Shaq Wilson has been named a defensive analyst. After 10 years in minor roles at the college level, Wilson joined the Jets in 2023, working as a defensive assistant with the defensive line in his first year and with linebackers for the past two seasons.
These names put the final touches on the Monken’s first NFL staff in Cleveland. The staff will have its work cut out for it to climb out of the AFC North basement once again, but the group should get some time to figure things out as the team gets out from under some handicapping cap hits and uncertainty in the quarterbacks room.
AFC North Coaching Updates: Browns, Koetter, Ravens
New Browns head coach Todd Monken continues to build his first NFL staff, and he continues to do so by rounding up his former coworkers. Today, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that UMass offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian would be reuniting with Monken to serve as Cleveland’s new quarterbacks coach.
Bajakian worked with Monken during their tenures with the Buccaneers. Since then, Bajakian has roamed the collegiate coaching circuit working as OC/QB coach at different points with Boston College, Northwestern, Utah (interim), and the Minutemen. That litany of experience working with young, college athletes should prepare him well for the challenge he faces in developing a Browns quarterbacks room that features two rising sophomores (and, potentially, a new rookie this year).
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, former Jets tight ends coach Jeff Blasko is expected to be making his way to Cleveland to accept the same job under Monken. He will be reuniting with both the team and the new head coach after working as the Browns assistant offensive line coach in 2019, when Monken was the team’s offensive coordinator. Additionally, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, Monken is bringing over yet another Baltimore migrant, adding former Ravens offensive assistant Ian Kolste to his staff in Cleveland in an as of yet unknown role. Kolste was considered to be a rising, young mind in the Ravens building.
Lastly, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the Browns are interviewing former Ravens assistant quarterbacks coach/director of football strategy Daniel Stern for the role of associate head coach. All three hires and Stern fit the criteria of having worked with Monken in the past.
Here are a couple other coaching updates from around the AFC North:
- Pelissero also brought a report out of Cincinnati that Davis Koetter, the son of former Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter, has been hired as the Bengals‘ new assistant wide receivers coach. The younger Koetter was an analyst at South Carolina last year and had worked for two years at Texas before that.
- Finally, in Baltimore, new head coach Jesse Minter is filling out an expected vacancy in his staff. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Ravens expect Stern to be leaving for the job he’s set to interview for in Cleveland, and the team is hiring former Colts game manager Charlie Gelman to fill his place. Gelman is expected to be coming in as Baltimore’s new game management coordinator/defensive assistant.
Ravens Finalize 2025 Coaching Staff
The Ravens are one of the latest teams to formally finalize their 2025 coaching staff, announcing their additions and updates yesterday, per team editorial director Ryan Mink. Head coach John Harbaugh has held one of the most consistent positions in the NFL, and his staff will reflect that in 2025. 
After fielding the NFL’s No. 3 scoring offense, No. 1 total offense, No. 7 passing offense, and No. 1 rushing offense in 2024, Baltimore didn’t see the need to make any changes on offense. Though offensive coordinator Todd Monken got some head coaching interest this cycle, he remained in Baltimore with an extension. The only update on that side of the ball comes from running backs coach Willie Taggart, who has earned the assistant head coach title left vacant with the departure of last year’s assistant head coach/pass game coordinator Chris Hewitt. There was also a minor update on the offense, where offensive football analyst Prentice Gill was named as a coaching fellow. Joining Gill as coaching fellows are DP Eyman and Ian Kolste.
The defensive side of the ball is where we saw the most change in the coaching staff. We’ve already reported on most of the changes to defensive coordinator Zach Orr‘s staff, which included the hirings of Tyler Santucci as inside linebackers coach, Matt Pees as assistant linebackers coach, Donald D’Alesio as defensive backs coach, and Chuck Pagano as senior defensive assistant/secondary coach. The only other update on the defensive coaching staff saw former assistant defensive line/outside linebackers coach Matt Robinson promoted to outside linebackers coach.
On special teams, we see don’t see any changes up top, but the team has added former safety Anthony Levine as assistant special teams coach following his dismissal from the Titans’ staff. Levine played 10 seasons in Baltimore mainly as a mainstay on special teams. He becomes the second former special teamer to return to the staff after former punter Sam Koch served as a special teams consultant last year. Depending on what happens with the investigation into allegations against kicker Justin Tucker, they may have their work cut out for them.
That does it for the changes to the Ravens’ 2025 coaching staff. Not much change seems to have been needed for the team who won back-to-back AFC North titles. Harbaugh and company will run it back in hopes of improving their postseason outcomes from the past two seasons.