Cleveland Browns: Making Sense of Sashi Brown as VP of Football Ops

Given how poorly run the Cleveland Browns have been since Jimmy Haslam took ownership of the team, people have every right to be skeptical of Sashi Brown being named Vice President of Football Operations. Not only is it a name that virtually no one knows anything about, he was promoted from the inside of the organization that just lost 18 of their last 21 games. Whether Brown is ultimately the right hire for the position remains to be seen, but it is important to understand what he is actually going to do and how he might plan to do it.

Vice President of Football Operations is an executive position. This is the position Joe Banner held with the Browns during his brief stay as well as the one Mike Tannenbaum and John Elway currently hold with the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos do respectively.

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Brown is responsible for the salary cap and is responsible for the final 53 players on the roster. He is not a scout, a talent evaluator, or a guy with a background in football.

Neither was Joe Banner. Banner had Tom Heckert in Philadelphia and Mike Lombardi in Cleveland as the football arm of his office. Brown will need to find a quality general manager in Cleveland to fill that role.

Brown is also someone who believes in analytics, which requires more explanation. As a tool used in talent evaluation, analytics can be incredibly valuable. It should never be used instead of traditional scouting, but in conjunction with it. Where it shows value is cross checking what was shown on the field. It can confirm what the tape shows on the field or raise some questions that require further investigation.

When the tape and analytics agree a player should be successful, it increases the chances of success for a team that needs all the help it can get with the draft. There is no reason not to use this type of data along with good, old fashioned pounding the pavement style scouting.

In many ways, Brown’s first responsibility will be doing the job that Ray Farmer wouldn’t. Farmer was fired largely for not being willing to act and trust in himself and his plan enough to follow through on them. Along with that, Brown has to be willing to tell Haslam ‘no’ in the best interests of the team.

In speaking with someone familiar with Brown, the expectation is that Brown would bring the common sense to an executive position that had been sorely lacking in Berea. The best player will play, regardless of draft status, contract or hype.

As a result, players approve the move. Some players that were looking for a way out of Cleveland are at least willing to consider what the Browns are going to do before making a decision. The feeling is that Brown will eliminate the ulterior motives that occurred both from the coaching and front office in regards to players and playing time.

Specifically citing Johnny Manziel, the off field nonsense, coddling and everything else will not be tolerated under Brown. It remains to be seen what will happen with Manziel, but the Browns bent over backward for him and he has made them regret it at virtually every turn.

The other interesting aspect of the Brown hire was the GM position. It remains to be seen if Haslam can sell it, but the case was made that the GM posting in Cleveland could be far more attractive than many people might think.

There is limited power insofar as it relates to picking the head coach and total control of the 53 man roster, but any GM would want to work with the head coach anyway. The other part of this is while the GM would not have the control that most do in the NFL, they also are not on the front line for taking blame.

Sashi Brown is going to take the hits for missteps while the GM can get credit for what he does correctly. The GM does not have to worry about the salary cap, but just has to focus on scouting and finding talent. It’s limited in scope but it also focuses on the parts of the job that GMs crave.

They run the scouting department but are totally consumed with finding and figuring out ways to get talent. This is the exact path that Mike Heckert used to gain prominence with the Eagles under Banner. Lauded as a man who knew how to work the draft there, he was able to roll that over into a full GM position with the Browns. Now, he Heckert is part of Elway’s group in Denver.

For talent evaluators that want more voice and control of the NFL Draft but may not feel quite ready to take on the entire job or simply do not want to deal with the salary cap and contract negotiations, Cleveland could be an attractive middle ground.

The Browns do have some in house options for that type of role including assistant general manager Bill Kuharich as well as Morocco Brown, the Vice President of Player Personnel. Outside the organization, teams like the Green Bay Packers have a number of qualified people under Ted Thompson who might want a bigger role. Eliot Wolf is a name that gets mentioned quite a bit in that regard.

Sashi Brown is going to sink or swim based on the football people he surrounds himself with and his willingness to trust them. The notion that Brown is simply another Haslam ‘yes’ man sounds good in theory, but Haslam just fired Farmer in large part for that very reason. Brown just watched a walking, talking reason not to be afraid to stand up to the owner, because if he is going to get fired anyway, he might as well do it on his terms.

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None of this guarantees the Browns anything and if history is any kind of guide, the Browns are going to find a way to hit bottom. Nevertheless, simply dismissing Brown because of his lack of his football background or how he got the job could prove a mistake. From someone who has been extremely critical of Haslam’s handling of this organization, including how he even managed to make the firings of Farmer and Pettine into a fiasco, “Haslam got this one kinda right.” Considering his history to this point, that might be a home run for Haslam.