The Browns, still waiting for their first win of the season, did not wait long to bring in a new personnel chief. Hours after firing executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown Thursday, the team announced the hiring of John Dorsey as its new general manager.
“We know we have a critical and very positive opportunity ahead of us to profoundly impact the foundation of this football team,” Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said in a statement. “Bringing in someone of John Dorsey’s caliber, his track record of success and his experience, significantly strengthens our opportunities to build a winning football team and that has been, and continues to be, what we want for our fans.”
Dorsey was the general manager of the Chiefs from 2013 until June, when Kansas City surprisingly fired him after going 43-21 during his tenure. In Cleveland, the 57-year-old former linebacker will be charged with landing a franchise quarterback while working with incumbent head coach Hue Jackson.
Earlier in the day, Haslam had said that Jackson would “remain our coach and will return for the 2018 season” while announcing Brown’s firing. Hired to run the personnel department in January 2016, Brown took an analytics-based approach that emphasized the acquisition of draft picks for long-term success, reminding many of the 76ers’ “Process.”
As with former 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie, though, Brown lost his job after his team struggled mightily to have even a sliver of early success. They went 1-15 in 2016 and, through 12 games this year, are in danger of joining the 2008 Lions as the only 0-16 teams in NFL history.
“Our win-loss record since I became executive vice president isn’t going to cut it,” Brown said in a statement Thursday, before Dorsey arrived. ” … Obviously, the Browns have not yet achieved the turnaround we wanted for a franchise and the best fans in the NFL, who deserve it more than any other in sports. I know that turnaround is coming.”
“We have great appreciation and gratitude for Sashi’s commitment and leadership to our organization but believe transitioning to someone with strong experience and success in drafting and building consistently winning football teams is critical to the future of the Cleveland Browns,” owner Jimmy Haslam said in a statement Thursday morning. “Today we informed Sashi that we were going in a new direction. The 2018 draft and offseason is pivotal for our franchise, we need to ensure that we maximize our opportunity for success; with our picks, free agency and building our roster.”
Thanks to Brown’s moves, Dorsey inherits an enviable situation in the 2018 draft, as Cleveland has 12 picks, including two in the first round and three in the second. The team also has plenty of salary-cap room, giving Dorsey a wealth of options for possibly pursuing a free agent quarterback, but he is likely to use what should be a pick very high in the draft, if not No. 1 overall, to land a top young signal-caller.
In both of the past two offseasons, the Browns have chosen to trade down rather than draft a franchise quarterback and have watched Carson Wentz become an MVP candidate with the Eagles and the Texans’ Deshaun Watson post a breakout season before being injured. A quarterback Cleveland drafted in the second round this year, DeShone Kizer, has struggled in 11 starts.
While the Browns hope that Dorsey provides stability to a front office that has been marked by rapid turnover for the past few years, the team may have to answer some questions about its hiring process Thursday. While there were reports that the Browns had managed to satisfy the NFL’s “Rooney rule,” which mandates that teams have meaningful interviews with minority candidates before filling head coaching and front office vacancies, the speed of Dorsey’s hiring, combined with other reports that Cleveland had been zeroing in on him “for weeks,” raised concerns that the team may not have complied with the spirit of the rule.
In a statement Thursday, Dorsey said, “I thrive on every element that goes into building a winning football team.” He added that he had “a feel for the mentality of the fans in Cleveland and what it would mean to recreate the success this franchise once had.”
“I also have quickly realized how passionate Jimmy and Dee [Haslam] are about bringing a winning team to the city and would have not taken the job if I didn’t think the right ownership was in place,” Dorsey said. “I am eager to work with Hue, his staff, and our personnel department and help bring us the success these fans so deserve.”
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