The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Andrew Berry is new general manager
Andrew Berry, after spending one year in the front office of the Philadelphia Eagles as their vice president of football operations, is back with the Browns, this time as general manager, according to a league source.
The hiring of Berry was expected, especially after Vikings assistant general manager George Paton on Jan. 24 withdrew his name for consideration for the job.
Berry’s contract, agreed to Jan. 27, is for five years, according a league source. The Browns have not announced the Berry hire.
Kevin Stefanski was given a five-year contract when he was named head coach on Jan. 12.
Now Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has the alignment he envisioned during a Jan. 2 news conference to kick off the search for a head coach to replace Freddie Kitchens, who was fired on Dec. 29. Haslam expects Stefanski and Berry to align with the same vision of how to build a successful team.
Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta is part of that dream alignment, too. Time will tell whether that vision and alignment will end the 17-year drought without the Browns appearing in a playoff game.
organizations that are consistently in the playoffs year after year, there is alignment within the organization and they have the right people in the right place — coach and GM. That is what we’re focusing on tremendously, and that alignment is something that is really, really important. It sound easy, but it’s not.”
Berry was the Browns’ vice president of player personnel from 2016-18. Sashi Brown was the director of football operations in 2016 and 2017 until he was fired with four games left in the 2017 season. John Dorsey replaced Brown and was given the title of general
manager.
The bio on Berry in the 2018 media guide reads: “With the Browns, Berry helps lead all talent evaluations for the club, including college prospects and NFL free agents.”
That means Berry was the lead talent evaluator for the 2016 and 2017 drafts, although it was Brown who signed off on picks and trades attached to those two drafts.
Berry’s role as a talent evaluator for the 2018 draft was diminished when Dorsey lured Eliot Wolf from Green Bay to become the Browns’ assistant general manager.
Alonzo Highsmith also left the Packers in 2018 to become vice president of player personnel with the Browns.
Dorsey walked away from the Browns on Dec. 31 because he would not accept a reassignment to stay in Berea. Wolf and Highsmith are still with the Browns, but that could change after the draft in April.
Often when there is a shakeup in the front office, the scouts and personnel people of the previous regime are retained through the draft — in this case the 2020 draft — because there are no games left to scout.
“Let’s face it, we’re learning it the hard way, right?,” Haslam said when the search for a coach and general manager began. “I think everybody talks a lot about structure — and I think structure is important — but I think far more important are these two things: getting the right people and making sure they are aligned. “If you looked at the other 31 teams, there are all kinds of different structures, but if you look at the successful