Tag: Browns front office

Bob Quinn: What the Browns are getting in the ex-Lions GM

Our Jeff Risdon covered Quinn’s entire tenure with the Lions and has some thoughts on the new Browns front office consultant

Bob Quinn is the newest member of the Cleveland Browns front office. The Browns hired Quinn as a senior consultant for GM Andrew Berry.

Quinn spent the last five years as the general manager of the Detroit Lions before being fired after another humiliating loss in November of 2020. I covered every minute of his tenure in Detroit in my capacity with Lions Wire and ESPN Radio in Grand Rapids. I was at his introductory press conference in 2016, just as I was for John Dorsey in Cleveland in December of 2017. As such, I have a pretty strong opinion and experience with Quinn.

I’ll be blunt: I don’t get it for Cleveland. The Browns already have an ex-GM as a sounding board for Berry in Ryan Grigson. That’s the role Berry laid out for Quinn in talking about the hire in his press conference. Unless Grigson is going away, Quinn seems superfluous.

That’s not to say Quinn doesn’t add some value. Despite his ultimate failure in Detroit, the 45-year-old did have some successes. He proved quite capable of identifying offensive line talent. He’s a hyper-organized man, one savvy with the salary cap and pro-level scouting. Quinn isn’t afraid to make tough decisions, even if they prove both unpopular and eventually the wrong ones. Stripped away from his handpicked head coach, Matt Patricia, Quinn’s time in Detroit looks considerably better.

Bob Quinn’s 10 worst decisions as the Lions GM

It’s obviously a career reclamation project from Quinn’s standpoint. He joins a front office that is the apple of the NFL eye with Berry, Paul DePodesta, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Grigson and others. Quinn jumps in after the key decisions for this year are already completed, meaning he’ll share in credit for being on the staff but shoulder no real blame if something goes awry. He’s positioning himself for another GM job down the line and cherry-picked a great tree to splice upon. Quinn’s a smart guy, after all…

Some have worried about Quinn having eyes at usurping Berry. That’s not Quinn, his style or his mentality. It’s also something Berry is smart enough to guard against; Quinn wouldn’t be in Cleveland if Berry — or anyone else in the Browns organization — didn’t trust his intentions or his football work.

This move is a much bigger deal in Detroit for fans and the media. Quinn did not leave on good terms and built one of the most boring, unlikable football teams possible. Ironically, he’s now filling the same role in Cleveland that ex-Browns GM John Dorsey serves for the Lions. Here’s hoping the Browns coax out the positives in Quinn and he helps build the team even stronger. Just don’t ask anyone who has dealt with Quinn in his Lions tenure to think this is a good idea for Cleveland. That wound is still festering.

Andrew Berry proving himself early as the Browns GM with a string of impressive moves

Berry’s early regime has a different and more capable feel to it than we’ve seen in Cleveland in a long time

It’s been a big week for the Cleveland Browns off the field. Just as he’s done with several other big moves and decisions this offseason, new Browns GM Andrew Berry once again proved he’s off to a very impressive start.

The biggest splash is the most important one. Berry reached a deal with the team’s best player, Myles Garrett, on a massive new contract extension. Garrett will earn $125 million, including $100 million guaranteed, with his new deal. The defensive end is one of the NFL’s rising stars and most devastating pass rushers, and he’s just 24. Now he’ll be in Cleveland until at least 2027.

Garrett made the equation a little more complicated with his actions in Pittsburgh last season. Getting an indefinite suspension with six games to go and the Browns still not completely out of the postseason picture, in what should have been a tremendous triumph over a hated rival on national television, required some forbearance from the team. Berry and the Browns have put their faith in Garrett’s overriding character, choosing to believe the man they know as a whole is more valuable than the crazed worst moment of his career.

In doing so now, the Browns insured against Garrett’s price tag going up if he comes even close to his stated — and quite realistic — goal of winning Defensive Player of the Year and leading the franchise into the playoffs and beyond. There is indeed some risk that Garrett loses his cool once again and both sides lose everything here, but it’s a risk Berry and the Browns couldn’t afford not to take.

Getting the entire draft class signed before the onset of training camp isn’t nearly as big of a deal as it would have been a few years ago. The salaries and terms are almost entirely predetermined based on the rookie wage scale, after all. But Berry and the Browns were the first to lock up their entire class when safety Grant Delpit signed on Wednesday.

It’s that sort of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s that hasn’t always been the case with Cleveland’s front offices. Then there is the restraint and discipline shown in the team’s pursuit of free agent pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney.

Numerous reports indicate the Browns made a very rich offer to Clowney, the highest he’s received this offseason. Clowney balked, for whatever reason — it doesn’t really matter here. What does matter is that Berry and the Browns let it go. They didn’t keep negotiating against themselves for a player who would be a nice addition but not necessarily worthwhile bang for the considerable buck it would cost.

Just as they did when opting to let Pro Bowl LB Joe Schobert leave in free agency, this front office stuck to its guns and it’s budget parameters. Paying Schobert what Jacksonville spent to lure him would have major implications down the road, and the team’s diminishing emphasis on the LB position simply did not justify it. Past regimes might have kowtowed to the pressure to keep one of the team’s top players, the cost be damned, but this group didn’t bite that forbidden fruit.

He appears to have learned from his predecessors and prior bosses. Sashi Brown was too coolly analytical and distant, failing to grasp the urgency to win for players, coaches and fans. John Dorsey was too impetuous as well as too overconfident in his personnel evaluations.

We won’t know if it all works until the games begin. And the Browns have had impressive offseasons before, only to fall flat when success started to get measured by wins and losses on the field. The Berry braintrust has put a great deal of faith in a rookie head coach and a young QB coming off a rough sophomore slump.

Those decisions will weigh heavily in the ending evaluation of Berry, VP of Football Operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Senior Advisor Ryan Grigson and the front office. But it’s very hard to find fault with their first few months on the job in Cleveland. There’s a definite, tangible feeling of competence and diligence that hasn’t been there in some time.

Browns promote Glenn Cook to VP of Player Personnel

Browns promote Glenn Cook to VP of Player Personnel, replacing Alonzo Highsmith

The Cleveland Browns promoted Glenn Cook up the personnel ladder within the team’s front office. Cook, who has been been the Assistant Director of Pro Scouting, will now assume the role of VP of Player Personnel.

The promotion effectively replaces Alonzo Highsmith, who was not retained by new GM Andrew Berry. Cook has been with the Browns since 2016. Like his predecessor, he joined the Browns after working with the Green Bay Packers and played college football at Miami.

He’s worked as a pro scout as well as an advance scout, focused more on the Browns’ opponents than the collegiate scouting realm.

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