The Cleveland Browns Wednesday will introduce their new general manager. Andrew Berry, 32, becomes the youngest GM in NFL history, and the league鈥檚 second current African-American to hold the position. WKSU sports commentator Terry Pluto says the Browns鈥� front office now has three Ivy League graduates.
An Ivy League front office
This is a reunion for and the Browns. He spent 2016-2018 as vice president of player personnel under then-Executive Vice President of Football Operations . For the last year, Berry was been vice president of football operations with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Berry, chief strategy officer and new coach are all expected to report to Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam as equals. Berry (Harvard), DePodesta (Harvard) and Stefanski (Penn) are all Ivy League alums.
鈥淗e also was a football player at Harvard and tried out with the Washington Redskins in the NFL,鈥� Pluto said. 鈥淗e got his start as a scout with the Indianapolis Colts. In other words, he wasn鈥檛 in an office in front of a computer all the time.鈥�
A football tribal warfare
Pluto says what Berry brings is a combination of a football and business background.
鈥淚n football, there鈥檚 almost a stone age mentality or tribal warfare,鈥� Pluto said. 鈥淭he two tribes are, the old-line football guys with the stopwatches and the film room and the scouts. Then there鈥檚 the new age. The analytics computer guys. My view is, why can鈥檛 you have both? And my hope for the Browns is Andrew Berry has actually had a foot in both worlds.鈥�
Finding alignment
And Pluto says a downfall for the Browns is that they have always leaned toward extremes.
鈥淩ay Farmer, the first minority GM that Haslam hired, was total football,鈥� Pluto said. 鈥淗e was a former linebacker, and he didn鈥檛 like the numbers. Then in true Browns fashion, they go in totally the other way in Sashi Brown, the former salary cap expert who brought in the analytics. And they, frankly, go I think too far in that direction. Then they fired Sashi Brown and brought in John Dorsey, who was more football.鈥�
Pluto says he believes new coach Kevin Stefanski will fit in well with this blueprint.
鈥淪tefanski grew up with that kind of background and he鈥檚 very comfortable with numbers. And he played football at Penn.鈥�
Pluto, who has been critical of owner Jimmy Haslam鈥檚 hiring-and-firing patterns, applauds this new approach.
鈥淗aslam has been willing to look at things differently. His weakness has been when you try to upend something and go in a totally different direction, you just need more patience. And he鈥檚 never been able to show that. No GM for him has lasted more than 25 months and if they only give Andrew Berry 25 months, he鈥檚 probably not going to give you the big turnaround that you want."
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