CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns have known nothing but change in the front office, on the coaching staff and in the composition of the roster since the Haslam family purchased a controlling stake in the franchise and were approved at an NFL Owners Meeting in Chicago in 2012.
That near constant turnover, as no coach has made it through year three and no general manager has reached his third draft with the franchise, is becoming a problem as the Browns once again look for another top front-office executive.
“You hear the conversation with the dysfunction of the ownership, and sometimes, they’re too hands-on,” Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports said on “The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima” on Cleveland’s 92.3 The Fan Friday.
“I always come back to this. Jimmy Haslam was a minority owner in Pittsburgh and I just wonder why he didn’t take more from that experience given how much turnover there is and how much dysfunction there is, year in and year out, in Cleveland.”
What happened in the past has been near constant turnover since the end of the 2015 season.
After parting ways with GM Ray Farmer and coach Mike Pettine following a 3-13 season in 2015, the Browns turned over control of the 53-man roster to their former general counsel, Sashi Brown, and he embarked on a complete teardown and rebuild of the team.
Brown’s rebuilding efforts resulted in a 1-31 record over the 2016 and 2017 seasons and he was dismissed with four games remaining in 2017, only to be replaced by someone with a football-heavy background, John Dorsey.
Following the dismissal of Freddie Kitchens after the team posted a disappointing 6-10 record in the 2019 season, Dorsey and the Browns mutually parted ways.
“From what it sounds like, the last person that talks to Jimmy Haslam is going to have the edge in terms of getting what they want,” Wilson said.
Currently, the Browns are trying to find a general manager, while at the same time, building up a coaching staff and having a presence in Mobile, Alabama for the 2020 Senior Bowl. Practices began Monday and the Browns’ representation has been hard to find.
“They’re still trying to sort out the GM position,” Wilson said. “We know they interviewed Andrew Berry from Philadelphia, and he’s very well thought of and I’ve heard people talk about him down here, but it sounds like he may not ultimately get the job.
“What’s the plan because here we are in mid-to-late January. This is the first step in getting everyone together and making a plan for the draft in late April. You’ve got a lot of things to take care of between now and then.”
That plan, regardless of who takes over as general manager, could be trading out of the No. 10 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, just as they had in 2016 and 2017 when an analytics-based model was used to tear down the roster and build up a young core of talent through the acquisition of more selections.
“It would make a lot of sense,” Wilson said. “You can get a good player at 10, but given the state of this roster and how it’s almost exactly where you want it to be, you don’t have to stand pat. You can collect draft picks and sort of do what they did in previous years.”