Jimmy Haslam and Andrew Berry defend Cleveland Browns head coach hiring process, despite reports of their unconventional methods
The Cleveland Browns always seem to be an easy target for outside criticism. That tends to happen when a franchise has posted just four winning seasons in nearly three decades.
Most recently, the Browns caught some flak from the NFL world for using some "abnormal" tactics during their head coach hiring process. A report from the NFL Network's Tom Pelissero late in the team's search told of the team's usage of personality tests and essays to help whittle down the list of candidates.
While the report left people picturing a teacher in high school handing out assignments to their students, it wasn't quite that simple. Team owner Jimmy Haslam andVice President of Football Operations and GM, Andrew Berry both defended the process this week in the aftermath of new head coach Todd Monken holding his introductory press conference.
“I think you have to be really careful to just weigh everything on the interview, okay," said Haslam. "Because sometimes strong personalities sell better than other personalities. And I think we put a lot of confidence in references, and we probably had 30 references on everybody.
"So, I think that’s important. I think the testing we put them through is important. The body of work and then the interview. ... We didn’t short circuit, everybody did the same, and I think it served us well."
What's evident is that the Browns weren't flippant about their hiring process. Call it abnormal, but the things they asked of their candidates were done in the name of finding the best possible person to lead the organization during a pivotal transitional phase.
"The way that we looked at it is like, okay, generally speaking, you have a four-week period to make, really, a monumental hire for the organization," Berry explained. "Somebody that can alter your path, alter your strategic direction in a very positive way or if you make the wrong hire, a very negative way."
Berry went on to reveal three questions that seemed to guide their search.
"One, we wanted to define, okay, what are we asking this individual to do in this phase of our team’s life cycle?," he said. "Two, what are the characteristics and attributes that we’re seeking that would allow them to be successful? And then three, how are we actually going to measure that? And the way we looked at it was, number one, it’s performance, right? It’s a performance-based business."
The "assignments" that the Browns then asked candidates to participate in, were all geared at answering those core questions.
"We want to know what it was like working with these individuals from the people who have been with them over a long period of time," explained Berry. "And then we also wanted to test their critical thinking skills in role-specific areas. And that’s what the interview process was, that’s what the assessments were and the work sample."
One of the reported questions candidates were asked to answer involved QB Shedeur Sanders. The point wasn't so much a hint about the team's plans for the 2025 fifth-round pick, but more so to get an idea of how a potential hire would look to develop a young QB.
As Berry revealed, similar questions existed that involved another young player and even a coach.
"One of the things that we wanted to get a feel for with all the candidates was less about the specific player, but more about the player archetype, so to speak," said Berry. "So Shedeur, right, is naturally, that’s like an example of, like, a young quarterback and see what thoughts candidates had on that.
"We also had another young player on defense, and we also had a position coach as part of that because we wanted to see how the head coaching candidates thought about those things globally, given everything that’s asked for them in that seat."
No matter what was said about the process externally, internally, Cleveland's brass expressed no reservations about the way it played out.
Now, the only question that ultimately matters is whether or not they chose right in Monken. That's an answer that won't come for at least a few years.