DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Highsmith and Wolf Are Out

I think, while painful, this is an important step in the process. You can't have a high level executive be around and not be on the same page as his bosses. In the past we have kept around people when we probably shouldn't have. For example, we probably should have fired Paul DePodesta when we hired John Dorsey. We didn't and it created divisions in the organization. Get everyone on the same page.

He chose the wrong coach and sounds like wasn't exactly respectful of those he worked with.

A different coach and he's probably still here.

Or the same coach that we currently have.

I'm a little surprised about these guys being gone..

You should not be surprised.

Sashi,Depo and Berry led us to 1-31.And there are some people(Haslam is one)that think they did a good job.

The space bar is your friend.

You forgot Hue.

Actually none of us do including you. This could be a great thing or a failure of epic proportions.

To act as if there isn't two sides to this coin and it could land either way is preposterous.

He did a good job in certain areas, and an awful, fireable job in one particular area.

But because of his HC hire, he's also a terrible talent evaluator, which I think is ridiculous (at least, that's how I read some of the opinions on here). And those same people are lauding the re-arrival of someone that had a part in overseeing the construction of the record-settingly terrible roster we had when Dorsey took over.

At least you're honest, Alonzo. But we all know nobody on this ship is a "title guy."

I've been to the space bar,way too fancy and not my crowd.

Really? When I was younger I traveled a lot for work. I always had an allowance for travel expenses and per diem. Besides, I never said anything about that.

I think people might be quick-reading over the word "fix" in that quote. Jake isn't claiming that JD didn't do anything of value...it means he botched a lot of assets because he didn't do enough with those assets...and Jake is right.

Just to be clear, I think John Dorsey is a good talent evaluator (although somewhat overrated). I also think the reason was fired because he was not open to new ideas and lacked interpersonal skills.

I am happy about Andrew Berry being hired because I think it gives the team to be on the same page for the first time in a long time and because I think data should be used more in almost every aspect of life and that includes football. More information is better than less information.

j/c...

Lol...

HUE! Hue led us to 1-31. HUE! HUE! HUE!

Why is this so hard?

No comment.

Quite possibly. But we were destined to fail with Dorsey as GM. We should all be grateful Haslam pulled the plug.

Because it was a group effort.

Except at the tackle spots, and RG, and along the DLine, and Linebacker, and Safety, and even TE or that we didn't have a FB, or that the talent we did get wasn't performing.

Haslam is clueless. This is the main reason why the Browns continue to suck. Yes, it is that easy to explain.

We don't need him now. That position is more administrative. He is over the scouts. I would suspect either Berry is going to hire someone or he may take on that role for the time being.

From what I understand many of the scouts on staff were hired by Berry the last time he was here. Most of them are probably already back in the building, filing their last reports from bowl season. Now they prepare for the combine.

It's not like we don't have scouts and don't have the information they have gathered in house. Also, it not like Berry is totally void of what the Eagles scouts were saying about players.

Calm down, it will be ok...really.

I agree. That was his big mistake. I think he would still be here had he accepted that Haslam wasn't going to allow him to be the only voice on hiring the next coach.

I don't doubt, actually, that this is really a part of it, but I don't think it is as derogatory as people make it out to be. I don't know that "clueless" is the right word, but it definitely isn't his area of expertise which means he has to find people to lean on in order to build this and put the right people in the right place.... and as we saw all too clearly with The Walrus, listening to and trusting the wrong person can set you back years. In business, you get 90-day reviews and can see how people are working out by the 6-month mark. It doesn't flow that way in football unless they're REALLY bad.... you gotta wait for the next season to see how things roll. It all just takes more time and you're a slave to the annual NFL schedule in evaluating your people.

IF listening to DePo proves to be the sound bit of advice he's been missing along with *FINALLY* getting universal buy-in all around on what we're doing during the actual setup of things, then we could well *FINALLY* be starting down the correct path.
The part that sucks is above: we're slaved to the NFL's annual schedule, so we won't know the answers to any of this for months upon months, and if things go awry yet again, part of the pain will be for him, and Dee, and whomever else, to find out Who, What, Where, Why, and How it all went wrong and then HOPEFULLY get it right the next time.


"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."
-- Will Rogers

"Experience is that thing you get right after you needed it."
-- Steven Wright

That is different if your company is sending you to do a job. Depo chooses to live in SD because of his business, thus he chooses to pay when he is required in Cleveland.

I brought it up because you have referenced frequent flyer miles several times. If I read too much in to it, my bad, but it read like you have some sort of problem with that. I mean, why would you care?

J/C .....Most teams don't carry a FB on their roster, often preferring an extra TE. We lost our starting TE at the start of the tear, and for some reason, didn't play him when he returned from IR.

At S .... how many did we go through? It was a lot.

At LB, we counted on Kirksey, and again he got hurt. We did draft a pair of LB, but they were not really ready to be full time contributors. They might develop, or they might just as easily be gone in the coming purge. (version 9.3, or something)

The OL was a mess. Dorsey was almost certainly counting on having Corbett step in there, but he proved to be completely incapable of taking the job.

I cannot agree that the talent we got was not performing. Landry had a career year last year. Our CB depth was outstanding when both Ward and Greedy were hurt. Even our S depth was decent .... even when we were down to starting a guy signed off the street.

This team was awful for 2 straight years. The team had a ton of holes. Did Dorsey fill them all in his 2 seasons as GM? No. Could he have? Maybe if he had a legitimate magic wand. He plugged holes with the best players he could acquire, that fit the scheme, cost, and budget.

I am curious to see what happens to the roster this off-season. I suspect it won't be pretty, and we'll be looking at less than 5 wins in 2020.

I highly doubt that depo would have negotiated his travel into his contract. If he didn't, I would feel a lot worse about him than I already do.

Frequent flier miles are just a rewards program you recieve that is based on the amount of miles you fly.



I just have fun with it. The guy will be having meetings with Haslam weekly according to the reports from the team. Yet he lives in San Diego. That would require a round trip flight every week would it not?

For a numbers guy I wonder how he thinks that's an efficient use of time management?

I'm not questioning that there aren't reasons behind all of it; I'm just reciting things that people griped about with our talent all season long.

So much for the scouts staying huh?

Goodness - this is starting to go just like a lot of people anticipated.

So on top of being 32 year old GM, with no experience, having to deal with Kareem, Odell, egos, 1st year HC, pushy owner, starved fanbase, morbid history, 0 culture, having multiple coaching positions to fill, etc. Berry can add having to hire a start at square one with building a scouting department before the draft. . . . [/quote]




same as it ever was.... same as it ever was.... same as it ever was....

I think most of those complaints began as the injuries started mounting up and the losing continued. Before the season began, for the most part, people were raving about the talent and how we were playoff bound.

how quickly the mood changed.

A quick look back at the preseason prediction thread would point that out.

The main reason Haslam has been terrible is that he listened to "football guys" who told him he needed more "football guys." Unfortunately what he really needed was someone who was good at managing "football guys" which most "football guys" aren't because they are generally hyper-competitive and self important. We never had one team. We had dictators (often competing) with cowed subjects and a good bit of underground resistance.

Yet oddly enough, it's Depodesta who is still here going into the third regime change since he was hired. But let's not let facts get in the way.

Carry on.......

j/c...

Here is the scouting department that remains in place:

Mike Cetta - Director of Scouting
Dan Saganey - Director Pro Scouting
Glenn Cook - Assistant Director Scouting
Jimmy Noel - Assistant Director Pro Scouting
Adam Al-Khayyal - Scout
Zach Ayers - Scout
Colton Chapple - Scout
Sam DeLuca - Scout
Matt Donahoe - Scout
Gerald McCully - Scout
Max Paulus - Scout
Brad DeAngelis - Manager Football Information Systems
Scott DiBenedetto - Scouting Assistant
Tosan Eyetsemitan - Scouting Assistant
Branden Francis - Scouting Assistant
Tyler Hamblin - Scouting Assistant
Andrew Healy - Senior Strategist Player Personnel
Dave Giuliani - Senior Analyst Coaching and Personnel
Aditya Krishnan - Football Research Analyst
Dax Nollenberger - Scouting Assistant
Thomas Pack - Scouting Assistant
Michael Romanella - Scouting Assistant
Scott Skuteris - Scouting Assistant
Zach Wigmore - Scouting Assistant

Departed from the Personnel and Scouting Department:

Alonzo Highsmith - VP of Player Personnel

Steve Malin - Director of College Scouting (Dorsey guy)

Interesting, then why is Hue the one hawking tequilia at local grocery and liquor stores and willingly making a fool of himself on Cameo for $60?

There is a Giuliani on staff?!

I am deceased.

Haslam is terrible because Haslam cant stick to a plan when it theres a few bumps. The problem with Haslam is he doesn't know what he wants - and is quick to change.

Im gonna let you in on a secret - the Data guys were on a course, we might have actually won had we stayed on it. Then, we went on another course (Dorsey), we may have won by staying on it. Now we are on another course (this new guys) and we will have to wait and see.

Hue and Freddie needed to go - ill give him that.

But he needed to stick either with the data guys. He didn't, he then needed to stick with Dorsey, he didn't. He now is back to the data guys - see a pattern?

What he needs is to give SOMEONE more than 5 min to build their vision. If at that time its not working - then you "blow it up".

Pit, I know what frequent flyer miles are. Really? I have enough for several trips to Hawaii....like 5-6.....maybe 12 to Paris. That's for the both of us.