Official Browns GM Search Thread

[Binkster]

Here is a solid article....now give me paintbrush!

"Paintbrush me like one of your French girls."

- @bigfoot5415, probably

 

[I'mWithDan]

I find it curious that the angle on Brown is analytics. The notion that one NFL team can have better analytics than the other or that it should be a selling point is pretty laughable to me.

With things like football outsiders, etc. I'd bet my life that 99.9% of the data teams have is the same and the .1% that's not is some stupid made up metric that will get no one anywhere.

Where you separate great football front offices is talent evaluation and that can't be done purely with numbers. Some of the best football players in NFL history have tested pretty poorly, which would likely drop them on any analytical evaluation. There's also positions where analytics matter far less.

Maybe we'll find a great scouting director to place in the GM role and Brown's presence will help make more informed decisions but this isn't 1995. Trying to frame a hiring as positive based on that persons analytics background seems a little ridiculous to me. Moneyball was a thing because no other team was doing it. The sports culture has totally changed and we're almost to a point where the scouting eye is where you glean an advantage (because everyone has the same numbers to look at).

 

[Surge]

Why do we need a mediator between GM and Coach?? Is this a common thing?

Seems like two grown ass men should be able to figure shit out and realize that they either both sink or both swim...

Christ...

 

[Randolphkeys]

It looks to me like Sashi is hand-selected in house because Haslam trusts his ability to influence powerful people. Bob Myers of the Warriors is the model pro sports lawyer/agent who went into a front office position. He had pull with agents and gave the Warriors owners a voice. The key will be the quality of coaches and high profile players he can attract.

 

[The Oi]

"Paintbrush me like one of your French girls."

- @bigfoot5415, probably

After watching that movie I found a picture of Kate Winslet in some magazine, cut it out and traced over her body and drew tits and a puss in place of her clothes. I hid the drawing inside of the magazine and kept it stored, in retrospect, in way too prominent of a place inside my closet. Between January and May I probably "used" that picture more than any other item, including some naked lesbian pictures I found in the back of one of Howard Stern's books.

The magazine and drawing were gone when I came back from summer camp later that year, which led to the excruciating questions of "who removed them?" and "is this going to be addressed at any point?" immediately after I got home and ran upstairs to beat off to it.

I still wake up at night pouring sweat and dreaming that I walked into the kitchen to find my parents sitting there holding the magazine and telling me to "sit down. We need to talk."

 

[bigfoot5415]

After watching that movie I found a picture of Kate Winslet in some magazine, cut it out and traced over her body and drew tits and a puss in place of her clothes. I hid the drawing inside of the magazine and kept it stored, in retrospect, in way too prominent of a place inside my closet. I probably "used" that picture more than any other item, including some naked lesbian pictures I found in the back of one of Howard Stern's books.

The magazine and drawing were gone when I came back from summer camp year, which led to the excruciating questions of "who removed them?" and "is this going to be addressed at any point?" immediately after I got home and ran upstairs to beat off to it.

Red Headed Kate Winslet is the reason I married my wife. I can trace my redhead obsession to that woman. Everytime we watch Titanic, I tell my wife, "look babe, its the woman that made me fall in love with you".

 

[macbdog]

Bohemian Caverns Jazz Club. 3.5 stars on Yelp.

Kathryn L. gives it 4 stars, and states:

"The DJ was spinning true old school R&B vibes to the tunes of BBD and Al B. Sure to quickly note..we ended up dancing more than sitting. My gal pal is from Washington State and I don't think she sat down once LOL. "

LOL indeed. Looking good so far. However, Steven A. is very sorry that he has to write this 2 star review, but states:

"The service was non-existent. I tried to make eye contact and we patiently waited with menus in hand to place our food and drink order. Not a glass of water was poured. For an hour and a half the waitress did not come once to take our order. We were thirsty and hungry and I was certainly ready to be a good paying and tipping customer. The show ended and we never saw a server. We even had $5 in each of our hands for the green tip bucket that never made it to us, either. We went to another restaurant and had a late dinner and a drink. Fortunately for me, my friend was a sport--most gals I know wouldn't have been so polite and gracious. I was humiliated."

This guy was humiliated in front of his date because of the lack of service, so this doesn't bode well for concessions. Lastly, Mike W. gives it a 2 star review as well, stating:

"But for anyone who, like me, is mobility limited, Bohemian Caverns poses serious risks. Getting into or out of the place requires that you navigate a set of stairs that is uneven, curved, dimly lit, and lacking a hand rail. I had hoped they might have an alternate entrance for disabled people. But trying to get an answer to that question is an exercise in frustration; they don't answer the phone, and emails are not returned.

I've been to lots of jazz clubs. This is the only one I've seen that goes to such lengths to shut out a large potential audience, and that doesn't seem to give a damn about it."

So it is looking like we will have great halftime entertainment and great music played throughout the game, however concessions will suffer and handicapped people will have a very tough time getting to the stadium. Overall, I'm cool with it.

I read all of those reviews in Morgan Freeman's voice FYI.

 

[MalTalm]

I find it curious that the angle on Brown is analytics. The notion that one NFL team can have better analytics than the other or that it should be a selling point is pretty laughable to me.

With things like football outsiders, etc. I'd bet my life that 99.9% of the data teams have is the same and the .1% that's not is some stupid made up metric that will get no one anywhere.

Where you separate great football front offices is talent evaluation and that can't be done purely with numbers. Some of the best football players in NFL history have tested pretty poorly, which would likely drop them on any analytical evaluation. There's also positions where analytics matter far less.

Maybe we'll find a great scouting director to place in the GM role and Brown's presence will help make more informed decisions but this isn't 1995. Trying to frame a hiring as positive based on that persons analytics background seems a little ridiculous to me. Moneyball was a thing because no other team was doing it. The sports culture has totally changed and we're almost to a point where the scouting eye is where you glean an advantage (because everyone has the same numbers to look at).

This is a terrible take. The flaw with this line of thinking is assuming analytics are simply a pile of numbers people look at, or whatever crap number ESPN spits out and calls QBR. I've also seen on here people arguing analytics can't help evaluate non-skill positions because there aren't convenient ways to track performance of an ILB. Understand the fault here is not with the analytic process, but rather people's poor understanding of how these methods are applied. Also understand teams can (and very likely do) apply a level of judgement calls into their analytical evaluations like PFF does, and good teams will do so with consistency and without bias. Analytics is sort of a broad term for how to apply data, and the game has changed since Billy Beane's simple-but-revolutionary way of thinking there's more to scoring runs in baseball than hitting home runs.

While all NFL teams will have access to mostly the same data, no NFL team is evaluating it the same way. Much like the "eye test" relies on having a scout who is better at seeing translatable talent, being able to make sense of data in a meaningful way is what separates a team like the Warriors from the Lakers. Now, there's no way to know without being in the room with Sashi and evaluating his code/ core metrics if his method is a good one, but just saying it's stupid to build out around analytics is asinine and, in this day and age, just ignorant. Look how it has transformed baseball and basketball, and these methods have only been around a decade. Do you really think that, in 10 years, every team is now equally capable of evaluating the numbers and there is no competitive advantage to be gained?

Again, your thought process is broken. It is possible for a team to have good analytics, and it's possible for a team to employ bad analytics. But if you want to find an edge in the modern era of sports, this is the easiest/ best way to do so, in large part because there are still powerful people in the industry with your mindset: They still think they know better without the same quality of information.

 

[I'mWithDan]

This is a terrible take. The flaw with this line of thinking is assuming analytics are simply a pile of numbers people look at, or whatever crap number ESPN spits out and calls QBR. I've also seen on here people arguing analytics can't help evaluate non-skill positions because there aren't convenient ways to track performance of an ILB. Understand the fault here is not with the analytic process, but rather people's poor understanding of how these methods are applied. Also understand teams can (and very likely do) apply a level of judgement calls into their analytical evaluations like PFF does, and good teams will do so with consistency and without bias. Analytics is sort of a broad term for how to apply data, and the game has changed since Billy Beane's simple-but-revolutionary way of thinking there's more to scoring runs in baseball than hitting home runs.

While all NFL teams will have access to mostly the same data, no NFL team is evaluating it the same way. Much like the "eye test" relies on having a scout who is better at seeing translatable talent, being able to make sense of data in a meaningful way is what separates a team like the Warriors from the Lakers. Now, there's no way to know without being in the room with Sashi and evaluating his code/ core metrics if his method is a good one, but just saying it's stupid to build out around analytics is asinine and, in this day and age, just ignorant. Look how it has transformed baseball and basketball, and these methods have only been around a decade. Do you really think that, in 10 years, every team is now equally capable of evaluating the numbers and there is no competitive advantage to be gained?

Again, your thought process is broken. It is possible for a team to have good analytics, and it's possible for a team to employ bad analytics. But if you want to find an edge in the modern era of sports, this is the easiest/ best way to do so, in large part because there are still powerful people in the industry with your mindset: They still think they know better without the same quality of information.

That's fine and all but I think analytics for talent evaluation is way overblown.

Unless you're saying the processing of numbers and data leads to a better success rate in college player evaluation? Where has that been proven? Even a little bit?

At his point, it's just an opinion. No one has demonstrated there are models that make it statistically significant from a +/- standpoint.

I'm not saying analytics are worthless. I think there is a place for them but from what I have read, it is far more beneficial in things like injury prevention (i.e. monitoring physical load, etc.) vs. choosing between like players. The variance that exists in football is unlike any other sport, where statistical consistency lends to trends in data that NBA and MLB teams can more readily take advantage of.

I'm not saying the Browns shouldn't be progressive, I'm saying analytics shouldn't be the main line item on a guys resume when making decisions about a 53 man roster. Again, I'll wait and see what kind of football mind they can attract but Brown is in no way qualified to have the authority he does. He's a business and numbers guy that now has authority on personnel decisions. That is likely to create animosity out of the gate between Coach / GM, who specialize in player evaluation and player development. Maybe Sashi will work well in the role, I just can't believe they turned over the reigns to a guy who is described as:

Brown's role with the team on the business end prior to his promotion includes contract negotiation, government affairs, employment matters, insurance and risk management, licensing and intellectual property issues and litigation management.

That doesn't strike me as a guy who decides who should be on the field on Sunday's. It sounds like a resume that will lead to us all saying "why the fuck did they hire that guy 3 years ago?". Maybe his skill as a recruiter will offset all these concerns.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I would argue having an analytics guy that knows other aspects of football with final decision-making authority is great.

Agreed. I just don't think that describes Brown.

 

[Jack Brickman]

To the articles point, it sounds like analytics will help determine whose movements will result in a successful outcome (WR route running, DT movements, QB throwing motion, RB change of pace, etc). While im not all in on using analytics, I like it as a compliment to the eye test; not as a replacement.

The bold is absolutely true. Analytics should be a complement to the eye test and interviews and character assessments, not a replacement for them all.

 

[MoFlo]

Hence why im thinking its Peyton. Why else would you A) announce limited power for GM & B) state you're going to pick your coach first.

Coach is pressing because we dont have one. Jackson could be it (tie to DeFillippo/Haslam mentioned desire to retain some staff. Flip & Jackson worked together in Oakland). Or it could be Gase, who is close with Peyton.

A) It's not limited power for the GM, Sashi Brown is the "GM". The new GM is more a "Scouting Director". They're just different titles

B) So your coach can help choose a GM that he believes will successfully find players that will fit his system.

 

[ajz20]

 

[The Oi]

Let's keep it easy and just go ahead and assume Sashi is going to crash and burn.

 

[Soda]

The original.