The Browns are planning to retain chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, and Eliot Wolf remains in place as assistant GM. But the franchise plans to look outside its current power structure to find its next GM.
Jimmy Haslam indicated Thursday that John Dorsey‘s replacement will be an outside hire, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (on Twitter). The Browns plan to first hire their head coach, which will determine where they go with the GM role, Haslam added (via ESPN.com’s Jake Trotter). However, the Browns’ new head coach will not have final say over which GM candidate is hired, Cabot notes.
Cleveland’s new HC and GM will each report to Haslam, which was the setup when Hue Jackson and Sashi Brown were in power. Haslam added that the GM will oversee the 53-man roster, which flies in the face of rumors that the new Browns HC would obtain more power. The Browns’ new HC must be more analytically inclined, with Haslam indicating (via Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal) a “tremendous opportunity” exists for the Browns to be better than they were in this area under Dorsey and Freddie Kitchens.
Wolf will remain in his assistant GM role, per Haslam. This poses an interesting setup, given a new regime’s imminent arrival. The longtime Packers exec joined former Green Bay coworker Dorsey last year and has been a GM candidate in the past. DePodesta will run the coaching search, but the former MLB GM-turned-fifth-year Browns exec will not rise in the team’s front office hierarchy.
“Paul’s’ job will stay exactly the same as it is now,” Haslam said, via Ulrich. “He is in charge of strategy. He reports to ownership. Nothing will change. … We think Paul is really good at this type of position [in the searches]. If you think about it, all he has done his whole adult life is gather data to help make good decisions, so we think he is ideally suited to lead this process.”
what a clusterf***
Was just going to write the same thing. Haslem is a joke.
DITTO..JOKE & CLUSTERFLOCK..DITTO…so hacked at this organization..yet again. It’s an embarrassment league wide again.
Why do I have the sneaky suspicion that Jimmy will 100% make the call on the coach hire and it will be whatever Assistant Special Teams Coordinator he can control?
What a wreck. You think Jimmy would learn to not involve himself in these decisions. He is proof that there is no correlation being money and brains.
I wonder if Jimmy hires all the cashiers at his gas stations before he hires their bosses
That made me laugh
LOL!
My underwear is brown
Jimmy wants to speak to one of several job openings. Please call 440-891-5000 and ask to speak to Mr. Haslem.
Sounds like a personal hygiene problem. Try getting more fiber.
A more lost organization in pro sports you could not find.
I does not sound like Wolf has had great strategy with the record out of Cleveland. He sounds more the owners flunky. When will owners quit trying to run football teams? It does work here or in Dallas.
What a disaster that team is. I actually feel sorry for Browns fans.
As a Knicks fan, it could be worse as far as owners go. At least Haslem isn’t fighting with fans, publicly accusing every critic of being an alcoholic, and ejecting team legends from games. Yet.
If Haslem starts up an awful blues band and gets horse teeth dentures, watch out, Cleveland.
Next press conference someone please ask if Jimmy will consider selling the team
I could see Disney as a potential buyer as Jimmy has already developed the franchise into an ongoing comedy.
Gotta love ignorant poor people trying to pretend they know what’s best for an organization they have zero insight into, and that wealthy people are somehow stupid based solely on team records or whether the owner makes the decisions that some fan would make. Absolutely hysterical.
Dude, read any article that gives an in-depth look into Haslem and his style of management. He is an absolute buffoon and a trainwreck as an owner.
Yet he has a net worth of $2.9 Billion. Buffoons don’t become that wealthy. He’s for damn sure smarter than you and I when it comes to running a business and making decisions.
HAHA! You’re talking about the CEO of a company that was literally investigated and charged with a massive fraud scheme as recently as 2018? If I don’t recall, after the Browns went 1-15 Haslam famously stated “ultimately it’s the head person who’s responsible for everything.” Not to mention, it was his father that started the company. He just stumbled into the CEO’s chair. His net worth can not even be remotely correlated to his competence as an NFL owner.
He was never personally charged. But please continue in your ignorance.
Running a business and owning an NFL team are completely different things (for starters, there’s no literal revenue sharing in business). One can absolutely be a buffoon in one area (owning an NFL team) but successful in another (business).
I’m unsure as to why you’re defending this guy when he’s done nothing to earn it. I get that you’re a hardcore Cleveland sports guy, but carrying water for a trainwreck of an owner is odd. Read any article about him running the team that has any kind of inside information. Haslem is a buffoon.
And I’m unsure why you’re here ripping someone who really has no effect on your life. Easy to do hiding behind a keyboard, huh?
You know I actually thought the Browns were turning the corner. Silly me.
The Browns are a total mess. You’d think there was no way to go but up but they keep finding new ways to fail. They can’t hire a good GM and then let him do his job.
Man the cowboys and browns are fighting for who’s a worse franchise wtf
Cowboys only fired one coach in the last 10 years while browns have fired more than that number
Who’s more of a mess browns or cowboys geesh
Browns by a wide margin, and I say this as a Cowboys-hating Giants fan.
Since Haslem took over mid-way through 2012, they’re 33-88 with six different head coaches, no winning seasons, and five GMs.
Cowboys over that same span: three playoff appearances, one coach, one GM, 70-54 record.
Does it even matter anymore at this point?
Haslam is the truck stop owner who ripped off his own customers for years, right?
Why does the NFL allow criminal owners?
Why isn’t he in jail?
Answer- Because our society can no longer tell the difference between success and cheating your way to the top.
They are now one in the same.
The browns have been a laughing stock for years and this isn’t helping the cause but igniting the fire! The browns need stability in coach and general manager, and that starts with finding the right guy to run the whole ship!
Just what’s a strategy officer do? Win more games than you lose. There. I’m a strategy officer.
There’s a good article on Cleveland.com explaining the reasoning behind doing the hiring in this order. Give it a read, and give all your unknowing and clueless opinions a rest already. It’s clear you dislike everything about the Browns.
Get a life.
Woa it is hard to fatham that someone would take this silly approach
Seattle did it. So did SF.
That’s the problem.
Reporting to Jimmy…..
I guess Paul really likes those half price lunch specials at Jimmy’s truck stops!
(Yes, I know Paul doesn’t live
in Cleveland!)
Sarcasm alert!
Hiring a HC before a GM is always a winning formula. The Raiders and Jets are proof of that.
So are Seattle and SF.
Push.
How on earth does this team not have a Wolf/McCarthy pairing in place already? Haslem is an idiot.
Another owner who can’t keep hands out of the cookie jar! Jerry Jones 2.0
Jimmy woke up on 3rd base and thought he hit a triple. He has money but doesn’t understand people. Hire the GM….let the GM conduct the coach search. Get your wife out of the business. How many owners wives can you name besides Dee? Weird.
Not a Patriots fan but I think Myra Kraft was an awesome woman who was able to bring out the best qualities of her husband. Robert simply hasn’t been the same person since her death.