DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Joe Banner to Step Down; Mike Lombardi Fired; Ray Farmer Promoted to GM

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Just listened to Farmer's PC.

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What did he say in regards to the QB position?

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Just listened to Farmer's PC.

So, we are back to the GM choosing the 53 man roster. Great.

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Woe is Vers?

The best part of Farmer's presser.

"A general managers role is to ensure the success of his head coach."

Lombardi never got the memo.
And Banner had a severe case of "Bruce Almighty".

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Just listened to Farmer's PC.

So, we are back to the GM choosing the 53 man roster. Great.

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Yeah, it was much better with Banner doing it....


I don't know if Ray Farmer will succeed. But I do know our chances at having a quality draft have improved greatly. Farmer is a football guy. He played the game. He's paid his dues on the football side of the front office. Unlike Banner who had little to do with the football side in Philadelphia. Ray Farmer is like a tiny ray of HOPE to those of us that know this upcoming draft and free agency period is vitally important to the future of this franchise.
Were you really confident Banner would choose wisely in May? That he could choose a franchise QB? That he could change the fate of the franchise in one draft? I sure as hell wasn't. I think Farmer will work together with Pettine to build a team. It's up to them to be successful at that endeavor.

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No more "money-ball" Sabermetric BS.

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Farmer Interview

In this interview Farmer talks briefly about how he uses analytics.

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Ray Farmer is the new GM, promoted from assistant GM. Alec Scheiner becomes a true president, in charge of business operations with no CEO over him.

They, along with coach Mike Pettine, will report directly to Haslam.

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My issue is the same as it was with Chud....knee jerk. As we had discussed after Chud's canning, Haslem made that call not Banner or Lombardi after the poor way we finished the season. I had no real love for Chud, and wasn't upset he was gone, but was not happy with the knee jerk reaction. I think he made the same call on Banner/Lombardi. He heard negative things in the media and some league types he trusted and made a hasty decision. I'm not unhappy either is gone, and Farmer is at least well thought of throughout the league it appears (though we've seen that before). My issue is the pattern we are seeing here with Haslem.

He is either a rookie owner who realized he screwed up setting up his ENTIRE staff and fired them quickly......or is an utter idiot in the Jones mode. Time will tell us I supposed.

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I like the structure now. Owner > GM > HC.

Before I always saw it as Owner > Blurry Picture of Exactly Who's Doing What > HC

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Something interesting I remember thinking right after Pettine was hired as the head coach: During one of the videos where Pettine was going around the Browns facility introducing himself to various staff, there was a few seconds where he said hi to Lombardi and it was a very brief, almost cold exchange like they had never even spoken before. It came off as very odd at the time.

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I will be shocked if Farmer can resign Ward and Mack.

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FA is a couple of weeks. Who thinks Browns land any quality help?

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How soon will we hear the word "patience?"

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jimmy Haslam's blockbuster announcement Tuesday that Browns CEO Joe Banner and GM Mike Lombardi are gone only came as half of a shock to me.

• Browns Fan Central: Listen to live audio, read our live blog and chat in the comments live about the team shakeup

The writing was on the wall for Mike Lombardi's departure as long ago as Dec. 30 when the Browns conducted their press conference to address the firing of Rob Chudzinski.

That day, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was asked why Lombardi was not part of the press conference or other big Browns moments.

“I’ve never really thought about it, to be honest,'' Haslam responded.

It was telling, that it never really occurred to Haslam that Lombardi wasn't there. Then, on the day coach Mike Pettine was hired, Farmer turned down a second interview with the Miami Dolphins for their GM job, and Haslam pumped him up after the Pettine presser, calling Farmer a rising star in the NFL. I bounced my hunch that Lombardi was gone off two NFL GMs that day, and neither had heard the whispers yet.

I also asked Farmer and Banner during Super Bowl week if Farmer was promised the GM job here, and both said no.

But it all added up to one thing: Lombardi was persona non grata with the team and not long for Cleveland.

The Banner departure, on the other hand, came as a complete shock to me -- but it shouldn't have. Here's why: The day Pettine was hired, Banner said the toughest decision of the entire coaching search was passing up a chance to interview Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn a second time. He praised Quinn and predicted he'll be an excellent head coach someday. It was clear that Banner wanted to wait for Quinn, and that Haslam pulled the trigger on hiring Pettine.

I asked Haslam about that on Tuesday, and he said, "I was really committed to coach Pettine.''

Some other thoughts rattling around my brain in the aftermath of this huge overhaul:

• The Peyton Manning Factor: Haslam currently has no CEO in the front office. My guess is that he'll offer that job to Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning someday. He loves Manning, they're great friends, and he's watched what John Elway has done in running the Broncos. Manning will play at least one more season to break Brett Favre's record for TD passes, but might be lured into a CEO role after that. The day Haslam agreed to purchase the Browns, I asked him if he'd bring Manning aboard, and he praised Manning, saying among other things, "he's very smart.''

• What does this mean for quarterback Brian Hoyer? Lombardi has long loved Hoyer and brought him to Cleveland. The new staff seems to love him too, but what if the Browns draft a quarterback with their No. 4 overall pick? If Hoyer wants a chance to start now that he's proven he can win, Texans coach Bill O'Brien, who coached Hoyer in New England, would probably at least be intrigued. Would the Browns part with him? Maybe not. But if they're looking for a good backup for their rookie, they can try to trade for Redskins backup Kirk Cousins, whom offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan really likes.

• Banner saved Haslam: Haslam had no idea what he was doing when he first purchased the Browns, and couldn't have gotten up and running without Banner. Banner hired tremendous people, including president Alec Scheiner, and helped secure financing for the stadium improvements. He also helped secure naming right for FirstEnergy Stadium and completely redesigned the Browns facility in Berea. But Banner took a huge risk in bringing Mike Lombardi in as his general manager, and it indirectly led to his own departure.

Lombardi was never accepted by the local media, and when it came to the coaching search, some candidates were leery of him. Others were wary of Banner and some had issues with both. Whether the concerns of the candidates were real or perceived, it's a fact that some shied away from the Browns because of the two -- and Haslam knew it.

• Would Rob Chudzinski have been fired if this shakeup had happened before the end of the season? Some insiders have told me that Haslam really liked Chudzinski ("Chud was Haslam's guy,'' said one source) and probably would have given him at least another year. "Those are hard decisions,'' Haslam said Tuesday. "I think we made the right decisions, we’re really excited about coach Pettine.'' Too bad Chudzinski had to lose his dream job in the midst of this upheaval.

• Who are some of the candidates that didn't want to come? I've been told that O'Brien and Ken Whisenhunt didn't want to coach here because of either Banner, Lombardi or both. O'Brien didn't even interview for the job this year. Wisconsin coach Gary Anderson also took himself out of the running.

• A sea change? One NFL GM told me today "I will do business with the Browns again -- and I'm not the only one that feels this way.'' I don't think a lot of teams felt this way, but at least a few did.

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Money talks. Especially in football. Also, it has been said that players are turned off by Banner.

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If you listen to Farmer's interviews it seems as though he is saying the exact opposite.

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I've got two thoughts on this.
1.Don't go near Jimmy when he has a hangover,wow.
2.All you guys touting Farmer,what do you know about him? That's right,nothing.He was Pro Player in KC,that title has little to nothing to do with the draft.
So,come draft day,we will again be led by rookies.You know,people that have never done it before.But because he isn't Lombardi or Banner,he must be good.

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For quality players, they sometimes want to play for teams with expectations of playoffs.

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By the way, and I could be mistaken, weren't you one of the people posting Browns paid to much for Kruger and Desmond Bryant?

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If not, there were certainly fans who protested the hire.

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How many times dose a new hire state "patience" at his first presser?

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How many times dose a new hire state "patience" at his first presser?

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I might be mistaken, but I didn't here it once today.

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this ain't pilot Jimmy. No one knew what you did at pilot, no one cared until you were found to be screwing customers on rebates. You could fire someone because they didn't meet your expectations, and everyone in the company thought "great vision Jimmy. Good move."

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In Haslam’s 17-month tenure, the team has employed 56 coaches.

To call the Browns a circus would be an insult to circuses.

“Well,’’ Haslam told The MMQB by phone, “there’s no training manual for being an NFL owner. There’s a steep learning curve to do it the right way, and I admit we didn’t get it right at first. But I am determined to do it right, and to get the right people in place.

“In my business career, most of the mistakes I’ve made come from not moving quickly enough when you know there’s a tough decision to be made. The easy thing to do here would be to stay doing what you’re doing, even when you feel like you need to change course.’’

The latest Browns’ shakeup handed the GM job to a man, Ray Farmer, who wasn’t a part of the four-man team interviewing potential head coaches. Farmer also becomes the de facto head of football operations, since Banner won’t be replaced. In the most incredible news of the day, it was announced Farmer had been signed to a four-year contract. If you believe Farmer will be the Browns’ GM for four years, you’ll also believe Haslam’s going to name the downtown stadium after Art Modell.

So let me explain this story the best I can. When Haslam was confirmed as owner in midseason 2012, he came from Pittsburgh, where the most valuable lesson he learned in his time as a Steeler majority owner was continuity. I chided him about that Tuesday in light of the revolving door in his own building, and he said, “You’re right. You’re right. That’s fair. I do know from previous experience how important continuity is. Right now, we have to make this change and suffer the pain.”

Haslam was paired with former Eagles president Banner, who wore out his welcome in Philadelphia after a long tenure with owner Jeffrey Lurie and coach Andy Reid. The headstrong Banner was looking to run a franchise on his own, and Haslam decided to take him on as day-to-day steward. Haslam disputes the commonly held view that his partnership with Banner was an arranged marriage, because he said he interviewed him and chose him; Banner, he said, was forced on him by no one.

But it was a shotgun marriage from the start, because Banner and Haslam needed each other. Sometimes that works, and sometime it doesn’t. One did this season, famously, with GM John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll in Seattle. This one, not so much. Banner convinced Haslam to hire Lombardi, disliked by many in Cleveland from his former tenure as GM with the Browns, and Lombardi came on board from his analyst’s role with NFL Network. Immediately Lombardi was a misfit. Except for special, one-off occasions, Lombardi was prevented from talking to the media, extremely odd for such a high-profile job in such a football-hungry town. On draft weekend, the front office looked stupid when someone granted Grantland’s Chuck Klosterman special access to cover the Cleveland draft room, then had it rescinded at the last minute. Wrote Klosterman: “The Browns live in a state of perpetual war, endlessly convincing themselves that every scrap of information they possess is some kind of game-changing superweapon that will alter lives and transmogrify the culture. They behave like members of a corporate cult.’’

Banner spent $5 million of Haslam’s money to totally revamp the second floor of the Browns’ training facility and offices—and to try to change the club’s philosophy. The Browns’ coaching, front-office, scouting, sales, PR and broadcast departments are all in an open campus. When a big sale was made, a bell was rung, and the sales team all clapped. The club had a live radio show in a $65,000 soundproof studio in the middle of it all. Banner toured me around the place last summer and said, “It’s the energy of feeling like something’s always happening, every day.”

Then they began playing football, and nothing really changed. For the sixth straight season, the Browns lost at least 11 games. As the year went on, Banner thought coach Rob Chudzinski got promoted one time too many and was overmatched as a head coach. Word leaked at 3 p.m. on the last day of the season, during the last game, that Chudzinski could be fired after his first year, and five hours later, as the Browns returned to Cleveland from Pittsburgh, it happened. Team leader D’Qwell Jackson’s reaction: “We fired Chud? Are you kidding me?’’

Another coaching search. Three guys they liked—coordinators Josh McDaniels, Adam Gase and Dan Quinn—all pulled out with their teams still in play. None would say the truth: The job was toxic, and they all had good coaching jobs with solid teams. Lombardi, friends with McDaniels, went hard after the Patriots offensive coordinator again when New England lost in the AFC title game, but McDaniels stayed a Patriot.

Bill Belichick and Urban Meyer were strong in recommendations for fired Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano—Belichick called twice—and here’s where I hear there was a major rift in the organization. Banner wanted nothing to do with Schiano. Haslam was intrigued with him after the over-the-top recommendation from Belichick. The group flew to Tampa to interview Schiano, and one source said Banner was cold to Schiano, not participating much in the interview. Banner likely thought Schiano would be a disastrous hire, given all the negatives in recent Cleveland history. He was probably right, but the owner was open to it, and when the owner’s open to it, the man running football operations should at least consider it.

So now two guys even the most ardent of Browns backers barely knew a month ago—then-Buffalo defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and Farmer—constitute the Cleveland football braintrust. For now, Farmer is in charge of cutting the roster and handing Pettine the final 53-man team. Pettine will be in charge of all game-day personnel decisions and deployment. For two guys who have never worked together, that bears watching.

Farmer is well-liked and respected as a personnel man. Until joining the Browns last year, he had worked in Kansas City as Scott Pioli’s assistant. He turned down Miami’s GM job recently, reportedly because he was offered only a two-year contract. Asked Tuesday about Miami at the news conference, Farmer went third-person, saying the Miami job “wasn’t right for Ray Farmer.” But Farmer’s friends say he’s not an ego guy.

Farmer earned Haslam’s respect with a strong interview in Cleveland after the Chiefs staff got blown up. “Smart, no ego, relates well to players,’’ said Haslam. Farmer got Haslam’s ear by standing with him at practice during the season and explaining personnel and scouting—and then by asking his counsel when he was considering taking the Miami GM job last month. The more Haslam thought about Farmer, the more he thought he was a valuable man he didn’t want to lose. Haslam started seriously considering making the changes last week.

A Browns free-agency meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday was abruptly cancelled. It was Tuesday morning that Haslam delivered the news, which I’m told blew away both Banner and Lombardi. The owner told the staff in a 10 a.m. meeting, then told a news conference in the afternoon he was finished with major changes. After that, he and his staff—led by Farmer and Pettine, with club president Alec Scheiner and general counsel Sashi Brown—had their first organizational meeting, a session of about two hours.

“Ray was terrific in the meeting,’’ Haslam said. “He was as strong an individual as anyone in the room this afternoon.”

He’d better be. Haslam and Farmer now have to worry about calming the roiling waters around the team. It’s like there’s a moat around the Browns’ training center in suburban Berea, and alligators are swimming in it. In the past six weeks, the team has fired the entire coaching staff and the two biggest football people running the show. The coach is new, the coordinators are new, the offense (with a bruised Kyle Shanahan coming off an ugly year in Washington) is new. The Browns don’t have a quarterback of the future. They do have three draft picks in the top 35—Nos. 4, 26 and 35—with the prospect of trading two of those choices (or No. 4 plus next year’s first-rounder) to obtain the quarterback of their dreams. Unless, of course, that man is Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, coveted by Cleveland, and he goes to a team unwilling to trade down before the Browns have a chance to pick him.

Surprisingly, because of the local enmity for Banner and Lombardi, Haslam didn’t seem to be getting roasted Tuesday night in Cleveland, and I think the fans are probably right: Haslam reached the point where he thought Banner and Lombardi were impediments to success. When that happens, they’ve got to go.

But the other side, obviously, is how many times can you pull the cleaning-house rabbit out of the hat? Browns fans are numb to the mayhem by now. It’s hard to imagine why the fans would have hope for a team in perpetual transition, but it’s Cleveland, and it’s football, and there are three draft picks in the top 35 to fantasize over. Farmer, as a rookie GM, has a huge draft on his hands in just three months.

Assuming Farmer is still the general manager in three months.

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Most people seem thrilled about this, but I don't know.

Hopefully, it works out.

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This is no teardown. This was planned by Haslam. Haslam has balls bigger than the Grand Canyon. No wonder he's sitting on a Gold Mine in Pilot.

This is PERFECT.

He saw what was happening and did something about it. In a HUGE way. You go Jimmy!

This right here is going to help make this a smooth transition.

From PFT:

The Browns might not be hiring a new CEO, but they are bringing in some help for first-time General Manager Ray Farmer.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Browns are bringing in former Chiefs personnel man Bill Kuharich.

Kuharich was Farmer’s boss with the Chiefs.

Prior to ascending to vice president of player personnel with the Chiefs during a 10-year stay there, he was G.M. of the Saints, where he worked for 14 seasons.

Adding a personnel man with his experience will be a big help for Farmer, as he tries to rebuild the Browns.

Our Scouts are all still here and pending a possible tweak or 2 in the future, they will stay here with Farmer. Farmer's been here throughout this year. This is EXACTLY why he refused the Fins GM job and stayed here.

This is as Black and White as it can get. Haslam saw what was going on and said "Enough of this Consensus BS".

Job well done Haslam.

I AM STOKED for this draft and FA period now.

Gordon WILL NOT be traded and our future QB is on his way in May!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

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Gordon WILL NOT be traded and our future QB is on his way in May!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

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Whisenhunt said, “Why didn’t you guys hire me last year?’’

The Browns’ CEO who was in both interviews, Joe Banner, told Whisenhunt he didn’t think the staff he was putting together at the time was “a championship coaching staff.”

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Rich

Finally someone called them out on their stupid "blue chio/championship" rhetoric...and how stupid is the answer anyway. Here you are, sitting with a guy you didn't hire a year ago, but want him now and instead of showing some humility, regretting not hiring him back then, you diss him (the SB coach) again with your braindead empty rhetoric and pretty much want to tell him what other coaches he should hire. That's stupid on any level I can think of. Looks like Whisenhunt only used the Browns interview to up his price/urge someone else to hire him and flip them a well deserved bird in the process. Well played, lol...and if it also helped getting rid of the clowns by opening Haslam's eyes: thanks coach!

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Whisenhunt said, “Why didn’t you guys hire me last year?’’

The Browns’ CEO who was in both interviews, Joe Banner, told Whisenhunt he didn’t think the staff he was putting together at the time was “a championship coaching staff.”

Whisenhunt, one NFL source said, was peeved that a man who had never coached and who’d been involved in football mainly on the business side would sit in judgment of his potential coaches.

“Who are you to tell me what makes up a championship coaching staff?” Whisenhunt said, with an edge in his voice.

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. Looks like Whisenhunt only used the Browns interview to up his price/urge someone else to hire him and flip them a well deserved bird in the process. Well played, lol...and if it also helped getting rid of the clowns: thanks coach!

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Just listened to Farmer's PC.

So, we are back to the GM choosing the 53 man roster. Great.



Yeah, it was much better with Banner doing it....

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Haslam is going to be criticized by many who don't have a clue as to why this had to be done if the franchise is going to begin building a winner in Cleveland.

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Banner was not responsible for choosing the final 53 man roster.

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