The Cleveland Browns may soon be losing a longtime and long misunderstood member of the front office.
According to numerous media reporters, Paul DePodesta, who has spent the past decade with the Browns
as the team’s chief strategy officer, is planning to leave and take over as head of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies.
DePodesta, who was famously played by Jonah Hill in the 2011 movie Moneyball, has reportedly been talking with the Rockies about the position for the past month.
It would be a return to his roots as DePodesta spent 20 years in baseball, working for the Cleveland Guardians, Oakland Athletics, as a special assistant with the San Diego Padres, as vice president of player development and scouting for the New York Mets, and for 20 months as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam hired DePodesta in 2016 to implement systems and processes intended to strengthen the organization. According to his bio on the team’s website, DePodesta “works closely with general manager Andrew Berry, head coach Kevin Stefanski, and members of the player development and research departments to optimize all organizational decision-making efforts.”
Often derided during his time in Cleveland because of his use of analytics, which is widely popular throughout professional sports but considered some form of voodoo in Cleveland, DePodesta was part of the group that advocated for the Browns to hire Sean McDermott as head coach in 2016. Of course, Haslam knew better and vetoed that decision to hire Hue Jackson as head coach.
A year later, McDermott would be hired by the Buffalo Bills, where he has posted a .662 winning percentage and led the Bills to the playoffs in seven of his eight seasons. Jackson, on the other hand, will go down as the worst head coach in NFL history after posting a 3-36-1 record with the Browns, including an 0-16 season, before being fired midway through the 2018 season.
Given a second chance after general manager and noted “football guy” John Dorsey hired one-and-done head coach Freddie Kitchens, DePodesta helped lead the search that ended with the hiring of Kevin Stefanski as head coach. Now in his sixth season, Stefanski has led the Browns to the playoffs twice and earned a pair of NFL Coach of the Year awards.
If this is the end of DePodesta’s time in Cleveland, fans and media will focus on the team being 56-99-1 during his tenure with the club, which, for someone who did not make personal decisions, is an odd flex.
But, everything about DePodesta’s time in Cleveland has been odd, as people refused to understand what analytics really means in the NFL, were obsessed over DePodesta spending time in Southern California, and carried a torch for a time when “football guys” ruled the NFL.
Now with DePodesta reportedly on the way out, everyone will have to find a new boogeyman to blame for the ongoing woes of the Browns.
