In many ways, Cleveland Browns GM Andrew Berry’s resume can be separated by what happened before the 2025 NFL draft (specifically the Deshaun Watson trade, which led to moving on from Baker Mayfield) and everything that has happened since the start of that draft. Before the 2025 draft, Berry made a lot of moves to try to open up and create a Super Bowl window for the Browns.
Since that draft, the moves have been far more about the future than the present:
The haul in return for Hunter and Garrett combined
to give Cleveland a huge set of draft assets and talent.
Berry, unlike his former Browns boss Sashi Brown and other Cleveland front office executives, has also refused to go scorched earth on the roster. Under Brown, the Browns roster was stripped to its foundations with only young and cheap players left. The idea was to bottom out as much as possible in order to get as high of draft picks and develop the young players selected with those picks.
During Berry’s introductory press conference back in 2020, the young exec made it clear that he would be distancing himself from the “tanking” business of the past Browns front office he worked for. Quite often during that media session, Berry used the word “aggressive” to describe his plans, including in talent acquisition:
“If we go back a little bit to what I talked about earlier, we are not going to limit ourselves to one method of player acquisition. If we can be targeted and strategic on the free agent market, we are going to be aggressive there. If there is anything that I want to be defined by, it is aggression. We want to aggressively acquire talent because that is the name of the game from an NFL front office perspective, and we are going to explore every avenue that enables us to do that.”
While his moves prior to the 2025 draft have been hit and miss, including the big miss with Watson, Berry has stayed true to his word by being aggressive. Since 2025, he’s also been aggressive in making moves to set up the team’s future but, unlike Brown and others, has valued keeping talent on the roster. This offseason alone, three decisions show the big difference between Berry and other front offices as they were looking to rebuild:
- Required Jared Verse, not more draft capital, in the Garrett trade
- Extended Denzel Ward
- Extended Grant Delpit
On top of that, Berry made it clear this week that production, not age and contract, will decide whether Watson or Shedeur Sanders will be the team’s starting quarterback this season. Under Brown and others, Sanders would be locked into that spot due to his youth and rookie contract.
There is still a long way to go to find out if Berry’s method of rebuilding Cleveland’s roster will work or not. One thing is crystal clear, however, and that is that the Browns general manager has no plans to strip that roster bare, no plans to tank a season, and no plans to do anything but continue to be aggressive.
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