When the Cleveland Browns made the decision to hire former Major League Baseball executive Paul DePodesta to help run the team’s front office, it caught a bunch of people by surprise.
DePodesta, an Ivy League grad, has no experience working in the NFL. His claim to fame surrounds the sabermetrics aspect of baseball that has taken over that sport since his stint as the Oakland Athletics assistant general manager.
Cleveland then doubled down on this intriguing philosophy by hiring Sashi Brown, who had attended Harvard Law School and acted as a general council for the Jacksonville Jaguars prior to joining the Browns. He was brought in to run the football operations side of things.
With a mix of Ivy League grads and lawyers running the front office, Cleveland was obviously going against the grain here. Trying something new.
It made some sense considering this organization has been among the worst in the entire NFL from an operations standpoint over the past several years.
Unfortunately, it appears that this new group of thinkers is having a tough go at its early in its tenure, primarily when it comes to free agency:
Multiple agents echoing criticism that #Browns are being extremely hesitant in negotiations
— Jason Cole (@JasonCole62) March 9, 2016
Cole’s tweet was later clarified by Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports:
Issue w/browns isn't not spending $$ – free agency is fool's gold – it's more the tenor of talks and how they're being perceived by agents..
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 9, 2016
The CBS Sports scribe went on to indicate that the Browns pulling an offer to presumably Alex Mack, who is reportedly signing with the Atlanta Falcons, has played a role in these rumblings:
And pulling an offer with a player who had played out his rookie deal doesn't help with their perceptions problems. Lot of grumbling….
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 9, 2016
We have absolutely no idea whether this new front office will be successful. It’s also important to note that most of the smoke is coming from agents, some of who likely didn’t receive the contract offers they wanted for their clients.
During the NFL free agency period, there is going to be a lot of stuff thrown the media’s way by both the teams and the players. That much must be known.
However, the Browns’ track record of failure in the front office speaks for itself. One now has to wonder if completely overhauling the process didn’t necessarily cure the culture problem within the organization.
With a talent-stricken roster and coming off yet another disappointing season, fans in Cleveland deserve winner. If early signs are an indication (they rarely ever are), that simply might not happen under this new regime.
In the end, only time will tell.