Happy Saturday, everyone, and hope you are enjoying the final quiet days of the NFL calendar.
It was a bit of a lazy week in Browns Town, although head coach Todd Monken did hire Mike Rutenberg as defensive coordinator, along with making a few other reported hires official.
Sadly, the week also brought news that the club will say goodbye to another veteran player as the Browns will allow right guard Wyatt Teller to enter free agency. It was a fun seven years for Teller in Cleveland, but now he will be
off to find his next NFL adventure.
While we bide our time until next week’s NFL Scouting Combine, it is a good day for another book recommendation, with this one being David Arrowsmith’s Narcoball: Love, Death and Football in Escobar’s Colombia.
The book details the rise of Pablo Escobar, his involvement in the drug trade, Colombian politics, and Colombian football in the 1980s and 1990s. Basically, it is the entire plot of the Netflix series Narcos, which is also highly recommended as it features Pedro Pascal and the talented Wagner Moura in starring roles.
So pick up the book, watch the series, and you can thank us later.
Let’s jumpstart the weekend with today’s edition of the Saturday Dawg Chow.
Dawgs By Nature
- New Browns DC Mike Rutenberg: Everything you need to know (Barry Shuck) – Todd Monken’s Cleveland Browns coaching staff is taking shape with new DC Mike Rutenberg on board. Profiling his history.
- Browns make multiple coaching hires official (Jared Mueller) – The Cleveland Browns have started to officially put their coaching staff together under head coach Todd Monken.
- Browns coaching staff: DC Mike Rutenberg promotes 2 coaches (Jared Mueller) – The Cleveland Browns coaching staff is coming together as head coach Todd Monken and defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg are promoting Ephraim Banda and Jason Tarver.
- Browns history: When injury derails a career (Jared Mueller) – Cleveland Browns history is full of big names and, sadly, big injuries. Nick Chubb, LeCharles Bentley, OBJ are on the list.
- Browns NFL draft: Ohio State S Caleb Downs at 6? Talent over position a possible option (Curtiss Brown) – The Cleveland Browns have a lot of needs on offense, but passing on S Caleb Downs in the 2026 NFL draft isn’t certain.
Cleveland Browns
- For a successful 2026 draft, Browns will have to hit on 2 position groups they’ve struggled with the most (cleveland.com) – The day the Browns fired Kevin Stefanski, owner Jimmy Haslam stood amid a gaggle of reporters in the lobby of the team’s practice facility and explained a move they didn’t make. For so long, Stefanski and GM Andrew Berry seemed tied together, both having arrived in 2020. So why was the decision made to let the former go and keep the latter?
- What NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said about Browns’ 2026 draft, QBs (Beacon Journal) – NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah held a two-hour conference call this week, where he took a variety of questions, from specific players to positional rankings to team needs.
- Todd Monken Gets Honest About New Browns’ DC Selection (Roundtable Sports) – New Cleveland Browns HC Todd Monken reveals why Mike Rutenberg was the right fit as defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns.
NFL
- Bengals head to combine with plenty of holes to fill (ESPN) – The slowest offseason the Cincinnati Bengals have had in recent memory is about to become busy again.
- Rams are promoting Nate Scheelhaase to offensive coordinator (Los Angeles Times) – Sean McVay’s refashioned Rams coaching staff is taking shape. Nate Scheelhaase will be promoted to offensive coordinator and Dave Ragone will serve as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, a person with knowledge of the situation said Friday. The person requested anonymity because the moves have not been announced.
- Frank Reich is the master of the comeback. The Jets might be his biggest challenge yet (The Athletic) – On the drive from North Carolina to New Jersey, Frank Reich called Andrew Luck.
