DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Depodesta needs to GO...

Who ran the drafts? I recall people sayinging Sashi. I remember people saying Haslam. I recall people saying Berry had the most imput. My God, I remember people saying a panhandler sitting outside a downtown restaurant led the draft.

Hence DePos push for everyone on the same page I guess.

It's already been dug up and posted that Depo was an observer only during that first draft.

Did Mac research that?

Why not?

Why not mention Garrett? Schobert? Ward? Chubb? If you want to incorrectly blame DePo for Coleman, let's equally, incorrectly celebrate him for these other picks. It's only right.

If not for Depo, we wouldn't have Chubb, right? Did you research that?

I guess if we're counting repeating rumors as research, yeah.

Awesome. Then DePo in his four years here is a no-brainer.

DePodesta has a very important part in adding tools that can be used as a part of the evaluation process. It would be nice to have a GM and HC that can work with him as a unit. Making it any more than that is a reach of gigantic proportions.

Trust the gut.

Butch Davis did that and all he needed was Tums.

Ahhh... Gotcha.

I don't think there's any worry of the chain of command being a factor. If there is we may be in bigger trouble than we think.

Browns ownership is leading the coaching search; Paul DePodesta is running the process
Updated 12:35 PM;Today 12:17 PM

By Mary Kay Cabot, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns ownership is leading the coaching search this time around, but Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta is running the process, a source tells cleveland.com. The ownership group includes Dee and Jimmy Haslam, and their son-in-law JW Johnson, the Executive Vice President of the team.

Last year, Browns GM John Dorsey, who was let go on Tuesday, led the search and beat out DePodesta in the hire of Freddie Kitchens over Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski, who’s a candidate again this year.


Everyone in the organization liked Stefanski last year, including Dorsey, the source said. But he opted for the inexperienced Kitchens, who was fired Sunday night after going 6-10 in his lone season and running a dysfunctional program.

As reported on Tuesday, DePodesta will not take over as head of football operations. He lives in San Diego and comes in a few days a week, and has no plans to be in Cleveland full-time at this time.

The Browns left the GM position open during this coaching search so that the new coach has some say in his top personnel exec. If Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels takes the job, he’ll likely want to be paired with his own man such as David Ziegler or Nick Caserio, both Patriots personnel execs who played football with him at John Carroll University. Former Browns personnel exec Scott Pioli would also be an option if McDaniels takes the job, a source told cleveland.com.

If Mike McCarthy gets the job, Browns assistant general manager Eliot Wolf would be a strong candidate for a promotion to general manager, a league source told cleveland.com. McCarthy will get the first interview, on Thursday. The Browns will interview 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh in Santa Clara, Calif., over the weekend, and the Browns are intrigued by him. He would have to bring in a strong offensive coordinator to sell the Browns on his hiring.


Despite a report that the Browns are expected to interview 49ers offensive assistants Mike McDaniel or Mike LaFleur while they’re out in the Bay Area, nothing is scheduled at this time. Both would also be offensive coordinator candidates if Saleh gets the job. Both were with the Browns in 2014 under 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who was offensive coordinator at the time.

The Browns can also interview Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman this week because he’s on a playoff bye.

The Haslams also love former Vice President of Player Personnel Andrew Berry, now the Eagles VP of Football operations, and would like to bring him back if it makes sense with the new coach. Berry worked with DePodesta here before, and the two would be closely aligned.

Other head coach candidates for the Browns are Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, and Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2020/01...he-process.html

AKA the same as it's always been. The Haslems have final say.

Never encouraging.

They own the team, they will always have the final say. Their problem has been following their gut or letting others run the interview process.

Their problem has been getting it wrong no matter what they've done. Chud had to go - as much as I liked him, the team quit on him 100% and I do not blame the Haslams for that firing. Petine and Farmer was cancerous. Hue was reckoned to be quite the catch for the Browns when we hired him.... Man it's painful looking back.... I'll stick to looking forward and hoping McCarthy gets the gig.

I have said so on this or other threads. I don't think there is any doubt that Dorsey wanted the coach under his thumb. It's why he didn't give Williams much consideration. Williams wasn't going to be a "yes" man.

You can even go back to his statement about the previous group didn't get real football players. Depo was working here. That was a jab at him as much as anyone else. I thought it a very unprofessional comment.


LOL...funny....look who is gone and look who is here. Johns problem is he couldn't get a real coach....he wanted a lackey and didn't want to deal with a smart person.

He didn't put the Browns before himself.

They have committed to a direction: Circular. They are completely clueless and will NEVER achieve any success as NFL owners unless they change the madness which is their management style. NEVER.

They can go to hell. They should sell the team. The sooner the better for ALL of us.

We paid close to $18 million for back-up defenders like TJ Carrie, Chris Smith, Adarius Taylor, and Eric Murray. Not sure how much more you want to pay for back-up defenders? How did they work out for us? So yeah, that arguement holds no water.

We have around $32 million in cap space that we are rolling over. We will have a projected $52 million in cap space when the new league year starts, 17th most in the league, and right next to Baltimore at $51 million. That is only because we are rolling over a lot more money than them, because our roster at present is $28 million more expensive than the Ravens'.

I hate to break it to you, but players like Kirksey, Vernon, and TJ Carrie are most likely gone, because their value to the team does not match their current salaries. And with Depo in charge, those types of players will likely be gone.

He's not going to be in charge.

So we need to pick a coach of which Dorsey wouldn't approve and we are done; moving forward maybe. Makes much sense.

And so they should. You can't just throw money at a player; that is simply fiscally irresponsible...

Not so much if they are finally acknowledging that Depo can be a critical contributor to the team...

Not calling this thread "Depo needs to go" was a major missed opportunity.

Let's be real, analytics is bunch of garbage. John Dorsey was right to sprurn that nonsense. Analytics says Nick Chubb wouldn't be a top 5 RB, and what happened? Yeah...

The same analytics that said Carson Wentz isn't a franchise QB. I mean he only has a career 63.8 % completion percentage, 14,191 yards, 97 TD and only 35 picks and a career Qb rating of 92.7...yup he def isn't a franchise QB lol

Look Bill Bellichik himself said analytics are cap.



The greatest coach of all time is telling you that Analytics is garbage and he doesn't use it and doesn't even care about it. Depodesta is a snakeoil salesman, football is a completely different game than baseball.

Its easys to see how Bellichik finds players. He does the following:

1. Does this guy care more about being a good football player than being famous?

2.Does this guy appreciate the chance to play in the NFL?

3. Is this guy coachable? Will he accept constructive criticism in order to get better?

4. Is this guy going to buy into the system, work hard, shut his mouth, and play smart quality football?

5. Is the guy smart and is he a student of the game always trying to improve himself and get better

6. Will this guy fit in as a cohesive piece to a much greater unit. Is he ok with just being a spoke on the wheel instead of being the wheel its self?

See talent plays a role in it, but not all of it. Bellichik will take a guy that is slightly less talented and checks all the boxes above over a guy that is more talented but doesn't fit all the criteria. Just look at his drafts and FA signings, thats how this works.

The only mega talented stars BB takes risks on are low draft pick trades and FA, guys that he can see if they buy in or not but there is little risk in cutting them if it don't work out.

Analytics is a bunch of bunk when it comes to football and BB is laughing as he keeps kicking the snot of of the rest of the NFL year after year.

Analytics doesn't work in football because football unlike baseball, comes down to 1v1 battles, be it a WR, TE, OT, DE, every position has to beat and outplay their man. Who wins these battles changes from year to year. In 2018 Steelers OT Villnova helds Myles Garret mosttly in check, but in the only Steelrs game Garret played in this year Garret dominated him like a rented mule...this is why Analytics doesn't work.

Kenny Britt is a prime example of why Analytics is bunk, Britt won more 1v1 matches the year before than he did with us, too many variables...Baseball is much less about 1v1 matcheups and much more about cohesive teamwork...this is why Moneyball and Analytics doesn't work in the NFL and will fail....

Haslam will figure this out 3 years from now...He won't listen to Bellichik who tells him its crap...why listen to the greatest Coach/GM in the history of the NFL right? How many championships does he have to win? lol

Depodesta should have been gone when Brown was gone.

Lol ugh i forgot about Kenny Britt ... yeah, that wasn’t the smartest idea ..

Look folks...there no doubt that Depodesta was at the center of the friction within the franchise again.

It seems that some view Depodesta as some kind of nerd who works to stays in his lane and be a model member of the franchise.

The excerpt below show an owner who is attempting to operate the franchise with 2 GMs (analytics & football), PLUS Haslam's own personal desire to be a GM/owner, himself.

Below is just an example of how Haslam stays involved and Depodesta was in the middle of conflicts from day one.

This caught my attention..."there's always a race to be the last one to talk to Haslam before a big decision"

Too many GMs(Depo and the new GM) and one owner who views himself as the GM.

No doubt there will be more friction, dysfunction, infighting regardless of who is hired as HC and GM.

Excerpt from ESPN article from 2016... link

After a few rounds of interviews, the brass voted. It was 4-1 in favor of Sean McDermott, the Panthers' defensive coordinator, a coach who had crushed his interview and was known to be open to new ideas.

Haslam voted for Hue Jackson, the former Raiders head coach and then-Bengals offensive coordinator. Jackson was a respected playcaller and teacher, especially with quarterbacks. Haslam told the group he felt Jackson could relate better to players. Jackson knew how hard it was to get a second chance as a head coach, and he was nervous about the rebuilding plan. He would later tell friends the team undersold him on the extremeness of the rebuilding plan, a charge that Browns executives found absurd, given the level of detail shared during the interview process.

DePodesta wrote Haslam an email arguing that the Jackson hire went against many of the characteristics of successful coaches they had discussed. Brown met with Haslam -- there's always a race to be the last one to talk to Haslam before a big decision -- and told him he thought hiring Jackson would be a bad call. "I hear you," Haslam said.

Then Haslam flew to Cincinnati and hired Jackson, who would report directly to ownership.

In a span of 10 days, Haslam had fully committed to two opposing football philosophies, and whether he intended to or not, he had set himself up as the arbiter of future conflicts.

THE FIGHTING STARTED before Jackson had even coached a game. In August 2016, Brown had a deal in place to trade 34-year-old All-Pro punter Andy Lee and a seventh-round pick to the Panthers for 24-year-old punter Kasey Redfern and a 2018 fourth-round pick. It was a good deal that helped the Browns trade for Dolphins star receiver Jarvis Landry last year. But after learning that Lee would be shipped, Jackson "went nuts," a source says. He stormed into Haslam's office to protest.

Looking back, several in the building wished Haslam had drawn clear boundaries right then, ordering Jackson out of his office and telling him to focus on coaching the team. But for better or worse, Haslam will always listen -- and listen to a lot of voices. In two years, Haslam had increased the number of his direct reports, between Browns business and football, from one to seven. He continued to solicit his usual array of opinions both from outsiders and from all corners of the building, leaving everyone to wonder and worry over who was in the latest iteration of his inner circle. It fostered mistrust. Those who were in the circle and those who no longer were in it studied Haslam like a psychological experiment. Why was nobody good enough for him? He had been quick to pull the trigger at Pilot also, sidelining CEO John Compton -- whom he had recruited for years -- after less than six months on the job. Haslam seemed well-intentioned but too easily swayed, and as a result, he often "became a mechanism that undermined his own structure," a source close to him says.

In the end, it was Haslam's team. He was the billionaire owner, and he could spend his time as he chose, even if it meant wasting it getting bogged down in a fight over a punter.

Analytics are always there.

1. Scores
2. Rushing totals
3. Yards per game
4. completion %
5. Yards per carry
6. height
7. weight
8. muscle mass
9. how high someone can jump
10. speed
11. Penalties
12. FG %
13. Long distance FG %
14. strength

I guess Belichick says he does not look at any of those things. Well, it seems as though all of that is part of the game, if he admits it or not.

Analytics can measure everything but the most important thing
The desire to win
Not enough on the Browns roster has that

Bill Belichick is a liar. (You already knew that.)

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/02/04/new-england-patriots-super-bowl-52-who-is-ernie-adams

Haslam & Haslam: The Land's Answer to Jerry Jones?

I just do not like JJand his finger in every pie approach. But these owners seem to be heading that way. Just wish we could have our old Browns, warts and all, just roughnecks who punished opponents and competed with "miles and miles of heart" (The Replacements).

We seemed not to be ready and not hungry to put people away. People slobbered for us. They used to dread playing us.

We didn't need all the FO garbage to get after people then. We just need a different caliber.

Your whole premise and position to sheer lunacy to put it nicely. You literally posted an article that validates what DePo is trying to do here I.e. pushing for McDermott over Hue, while blowing up narrative about him being his ‘butt boy’. If they had such a relationship all along, why hasn’t Jimmy sided with DePo every step of the way? You keep making this claim that DePo is some under handed power hungry assassin is absolute stupidity. Clearly the guy is only trying to be taken seriously for the exact friggin reasons he was brought here! Oh no! How terrible! The man puts in all this work, it g set a ignored, he continually builds a case of having been right, and the result is expects to be taken seriously??

Are you sure you aren’t part of the trolling Cleveland media?

That was part of his problem, he was in such a hurry to turns thing around right away so him and his ego could say "look what I did!". We didn't need OBJ and why would you trade one of the best OGs in the league for an Over-paid DE who can't stay healthy and only averages 7 sacks a season.

At what point is is a coaching failure VS a structural/ownership failure?

Given the ESPN article about Haslem creating conflict inside the organization, I really have to believe that it is him who has failed, far more than anyone who has worked for him.

Haslam didn't coach the team. This past season is a fail because our HC was a fail.

Beyond that....the FO/Structure is absolutely on Haslam. Letting Dorsey go is a fail. So I dunno. Browns don't know a good thing when it is staring them in the face.

When the environment becomes poisonous, everyone is on edge, and cooperation is eliminated. Everything becomes a power play, because that is what rolls down from on high in the organization.