It’s a done deal. On Monday, the Browns officially hired Eagles’ VP of Football Operations Andrew Berry to be their GM and EVP of Football Operations. The Browns will announce the news this afternoon with a full-blown press conference to come next week.
[RELATED: George Paton Out Of Browns’ GM Search]
Berry was ID’d as a top candidate for the job soon after the Browns parted ways with John Dorsey. Berry spent years as a part of the Browns’ braintrust before moving on to Philly and his relationship with owner Jimmy Haslam ultimately led to a deal.
Still, the Browns considered other candidates along the way. Vikings exec George Paton might have been the favorite for the job after the interview process. But, last week, he removed his name from consideration.
Paton was reportedly unsure about how the Browns would divvy up power. Berry, apparently, doesn’t share the same level of concern. He’ll report directly to owner Jimmy Haslam, along with new head coach Kevin Stefanski and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta. The Browns operated that way during the Sashi Brown–Hue Jackson years, so Berry is at least familiar with that arrangement.
Berry studied and played football at Harvard before moving on to scouting and front office positions with the Colts, Browns, and Eagles. Now, at the age of 32, he’ll get to run his own show.
Berry will inherit a talented roster, plus a projected $50MM in cap room for the upcoming offseason. He’ll also have the No. 10 overall pick to work with, thanks to the Browns’ disappointing 6-10 finish in 2019.
Hopefully this will be a fruitful endeavor for both parties.
it’s going to be bananas no doubt
Haha nice!
Those Sashi Brown–Hue Jackson years were awesome! 1 whopping win!
So they hired the guy who led them to a 1-31 record previously? hmmmmmm
He wasn’t the man in charge back then. Get your facts straight.
Not my first choice, but I’ll give him a chance. He didn’t make final decisions when he was with them before, and disagreed with some that Sashi, Clueless, and Jimmy Dee made, and has had more time to learn his craft, so maybe he can have the success we need in building a playoff-caliber team.
Go Browns!
Paton was my first choice, but I don’t mind this hire either. There’s no way of knowing who he is as an exec or a drafter (that was pretty much all Sashi), but fortunately this roster needs more of a fine tuning than an overhaul.
Getting someone with experience in the organization (and in other organizations, to see what less dysfunctional teams do) is a good move. He’s been highly praised by people from the Colts and Eagles, and obviously they’d know most about him.
How long before they realize Halle Berry was the better choice?
Halles got to be 50 but she still looks great
Second exec poached in two years from the Eagles
Don’t like it.
So, it will probably work.
Cool, first order of business will be dealing with Kareem Hunt and his latest run in with the po po…
I think they should have gotten a gm first then a hc and had the power structure where the hc reported to the gm but when u hire the hc first then the way the Browns have it might be the best way to go to get everyone to play nice .
I think the idea is that since Stefanski and Berry have a good relationship, they’ll be on the same page a lot. We’ll see how that actually plays out, but it seems like their reasoning.
Doomed