Mike Florio ,
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Browns chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta is gone. His legacy in Cleveland won’t be forgotten, and not for good reasons.
The effort to bring baseball-style analytics to the overall operation of a football team did not work, save for a pair of playoff appearances in nearly a decade with the organization.
In an interview with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post following DePodesta’s arrival as president of football operations with the Colorado Rockies, DePodesta was asked a very specific question. What was his role in the decision to trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson?
“Here’s what I would say, and I truly believe this,” DePodesta said. “I believe that most of the decisions, especially the big ones like that, are organizational decisions, right? I’m not a believer in the ‘King Scout’ situation where there is one guy who makes every call. . . . The jobs are too complex, the decisions are too hard. They impact too many different things. So I always think these sort of collective decisions, it can be hard to get unanimous [opinions] on those types of things. Everyone who was a part of that? We all own that . We just do, that’s part of the deal.”
That’s fine, but DePodesta’s title was “chief strategy officer.” If anyone was responsible with the strategy for trading away three first-round picks (and more) while also paying Watson a five-year, $230 million fully-guaranteed contract despite a looming suspension arising from more than 20 civil lawsuits alleging inappropriate conduct during massage sessions, it was DePodesta.
Between the picks (and the relatively low salaries that go with them) and the contract and the suspension and P.R. damage and the return on the investment, it was the single worst transaction in NFL history. The bomb exploded on everyone — including the guy who had the job of coming up with overall team strategy.
Still, DePodesta’s reference to the difficulty of getting “unanimous” opinions suggests that someone in the building was against either the trade or the contract, or both. One of these days, after all relevant employees have moved on and any applicable buyouts have been paid in full, maybe we’ll find out who, if anyone, tried to stand up and say that this may not be the best move for the Browns to make.
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