The myriad of front office personnel that has run through the Cleveland Browns over the past few years have left a mark. While leading the organization, each has had some interesting values that have led to many of their decisions. The last two, Sashi Brown and John Dorsey, were polar opposites in a lot of ways:
Sashi Brown
- Athletic testing
- College production
- Young
- No character/off the field red flags
John Dorsey
- SPARQ scores
- Big-name schools from big conferences
- Looks the part
- Character being less important
When Andrew Berry was brought back to the organization, many wondered how closely he would align with Brown, the man that brought him into the organization. While the biggest concern was related to building the roster, figuring out Berry’s values was going to be interesting.
Many pointed back to the famous “guardrails” leaked that were reportedly a part of Paul DePodesta’s plan for the organization when hired along with Brown:
One day, an entire book will be written about the Browns 2016 and 2017 seasons. This was a small sample of how it was supposed to unfold, on paper: pic.twitter.com/LSn5iP3pn9
— Seth Wickersham (@SethWickersham) January 24, 2019
In regards to character, a place where Brown and Dorsey differed greatly, the guardrails note things about “leadership,” “character,” and “psychology.” While “don’t draft a ‘red’ over a ‘blue’ could be in relation to character, we don’t have information to confirm that.
Finishing off his third offseason as the Browns general manager, Berry has shown that character risks are something he is willing to do. While Deshaun Watson will be the headline, he is just the confirmation from this offseason. So far Berry has added or retained the following players with significant off-field character concerns in their background:
- Grant Delpit and Jacob Phillips were accused of sexual misconduct at LSU.
- Malik McDowell had off-the-field issues before joining the Browns and one this offseason that could be the end of his football career.
- Kareem Hunt, extended by Berry, was shown on video kicking a woman.
- The ongoing Watson allegations, civil suits.
To be fair, Berry has also brought in some high-level character players like John Johnson III and Anthony Walker Jr.
While the biggest difference between Brown and Berry is the latter’s aggressiveness in building the roster, their differences in how they seem to value character seem vastly different as well. Under Brown, character concerns would quickly be crossed off the list. Under Dorsey, it seemed character concerns (Signing Kareem Hunt cheaply, drafting Antonio Callaway later) were seen as ways to get value.
For Berry, it will be interesting to see if character concerns continue to, seemingly, have little impact on his decision-making or if each of the situations were unique and doesn’t set precedence. Either way, it has been surprising to see how divergent Berry is from Brown in this regard.