Browns hire Andrew Berry

[Soda]

Idk about you but I'm going to miss their oline ovals the most.

I still miss Justin Tuggle

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Lol. That’s not good. Two guys without the experience playing lead roles.

It sucks that Breer made it sound like the only representation the Browns had at the Senior Bowl was two guys who left...when it fact they had about 7 guys, and 5 of them are still there. On top of that, any notes, etc., that Wolf or Highsmith took at the Senior Bowl would have been turned over to the Browns anyway. They likely kept copies of their own, but having 5 guys who were there, plus the notes of the guys who are gone, isn't exactly being left high and dry.

 

[Soda]

It sucks that Breer made it sound like the only representation the Browns had at the Senior Bowl was two guys who left...when it fact they had about 7 guys, and 5 of them are still there. On top of that, any notes, etc., that Wolf or Highsmith took at the Senior Bowl would have been turned over to the Browns anyway. They likely kept copies of their own, but having 5 guys who were there, plus the notes of the guys who are gone, isn't exactly being left high and dry.

1) What makes you certain that Wolf & Highsmith are being fully candid? That’s not benefit of the doubt I’m giving.

2) It is not optimal, a definite process flaw, to put the careers of the guys who are leading your scouting in the balance. It’s also is less than ideal to have no senior leadership in the building at this time.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

1) What makes you certain that Wolf & Highsmith are being fully candid? That’s not benefit of the doubt I’m giving.

It's possible they may not be. Although I suspect Wolf at least would understand the ethical obligation to report his observations fairly given that he was being paid as a Browns employee while he was there. So I suspect he'll turn over his notes and evaluations, but still keep a copy for himself. Highsmith's tweet seemed more flippant, so maybe he doesn't care.

2) It is not optimal, a definite process flaw, to put the careers of the guys who are leading your scouting in the balance. It’s also is less than ideal to have no senior leadership in the building at this time.

I'm not sure how you define "senior leadership". The DIrectors of College Scouting and Pro Scouting are both there, and so is the new GM. And if Berry isn't physically there right now for some reason, I'm not sure why that matters since I'm sure he's in close contact anyway.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

The NFL was always going to be mad about any shift towards openly embracing analytics in player evaluation.

Is it ideal to lose these guys? No. Will it make or break them? No.

If Andrew Berry is the right guy, then it won't matter.

 

[JDailey23]

Look, none of these guys did much for us when it comes down to it. That is unless you consider 6/7 wins “something”.
It’s apparently clear that those guys were not
fans of the route we were taking. As it’s been repeated over and over, we need everyone on the same page. It appears that everyone who wasn’t, is off the train.

 

[Jack Brickman]

lol

Old man is big mad.

What got us 1-31 was our "football guy" head coach who had no idea what the fuck he was doing and who couldn't develop a photograph with a Polaroid camera. You know, the guy our analytics guys didn't want to hire in the first place but our owner kept around after two disastrous seasons and actually gave more power to.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

I will also say this:

There is no guarantee this will work. Andrew Berry might be a fraud, just another in a long list of highly touted but ultimately unsuccessful NFL FO guys that come to Cleveland and fail.

To place the blame at the feet of analytics is foolish, though. There are plenty of examples of athletic and statistical thresholds that can help in player evaluation. It's not everything, though, and you still need someone who can correctly evaluate tape, identify talent. It's not like they can just run a computer simulation and just draft the guy with the best numbers.

Guys like Elliot Wold, Alonzo Highsmith and even John Dorsey have shown they can identify talent. To that end, so has Andrew Berry. They need more people in the organization that can identify these players and, ideally, do it at a better level than most NFL teams. Which is why I support the analytical approach to these things, because more information and quantifying any sort of success is important to take that next step.

I was a big fan of the Sashi approach. I think Berry will be, roughly, the same sort of philosophy to team building and approach to FA. Hopefully Berry has a better success record than Sashi had during the draft.

 

[Soda]

It's possible they may not be. Although I suspect Wolf at least would understand the ethical obligation to report his observations fairly given that he was being paid as a Browns employee while he was there. So I suspect he'll turn over his notes and evaluations, but still keep a copy for himself. Highsmith's tweet seemed more flippant, so maybe he doesn't care.



I'm not sure how you define "senior leadership". The DIrectors of College Scouting and Pro Scouting are both there, and so is the new GM. And if Berry isn't physically there right now for some reason, I'm not sure why that matters since I'm sure he's in close contact anyway.

I see how you’re framing the responsibility of Wolf & Highsmith with regard to the work they did while employed by the Browns, and I agree with you in theory. My retort is what’s the way you’d think the Browns would reasonably go about 1) figuring out what Wolf and/or Highsmith collected or 2) seeking action against either of those two for withholding info?

My definition of senior leadership in this case would be those employees that must answer to ownership/the media & fans. Not the guys you see once during the combine visit “Building the Browns” episode. Nevertheless, I still think it’s an indictment of the process to wait until now to cut bait with those two guys.

ETA: for the record, neither Stefanski, nor Berry, were at the Senior Bowl. No bueno. Being critical of this is “schtick”, if you have no retort.

 

[Jack Brickman]

It's not like they can just run a computer simulation and just draft the guy with the best numbers.

Honestly, doing that would probably yield better draft results than whatever the fuck we've been doing for most of the past twenty years.

 

[chrisrich91]

lol

Old man is big mad.

81 year old football guy.

I don’t think you could describe someone more likely to be stuck in their ways.

Get off my lawn

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

Honestly, doing that would probably yield better draft results than whatever the fuck we've been doing for most of the past twenty years.

Privately, while driving home from work, I did wonder if PFF ran the Browns they would have built a better team than both Sashi and Dorsey

 

[Soda]

Ron Wolf was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015. I’m not saying he’s a numbers savant, but the use of data, aka analytics, was being employed by NFL teams during most of his tenure. Especially true if we credit Paul Brown with giving birth to the concept.

 

[CBBI]

Every single team uses analytics in every single major professional sport. To what level they use them is up for debate, but every single team uses data and information to make decisions in some capacity.

Yet somehow the fact that one poor performing NFL franchise, whose struggles are primarily due to poor ownership and organizational structure (one of which has hopefully been solved), have openly embraced analytics there's a negative stigma towards analytics as a whole in the NFL.

It just doesn't make sense.

 

[Scholar]

lol

Old man is big mad.

Actually, it got them the first picks in consecutive drafts as was planned. The fact that they were only 1-31 doesn't mean a damn thing. Sashi did what he intended to do in regards to that. The picks they collected sure helped Dorsey in his draft. Anyways, Lets see how this all plays out and patiently let Stefanski and Berry do their jobs.