The Ivy League and AFC North have merged in Cleveland.
The Browns bolstered their Harvard-flavored front office by hiring former Indianapolis Colts pro scouting coordinator Andrew Berry as their vice president of player personnel Wednesday.
“We are fortunate to add someone of Andrew’s caliber to the Cleveland Browns,” Sashi Brown, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, said in a news release. “Andrew has been part of a strong foundation in Indianapolis and possesses a tremendous understanding of what is needed to lead a successful, high-functioning and comprehensive personnel group.
“Andrew understands what it takes to build a winning team and the individual traits that are essential in looking at each player that make up that team. Andrew’s strategic and relentless approach to improving his craft and this team will positively impact our short- and long-term opportunities.”
Berry, 28, will serve as the Browns’ chief talent evaluator, oversee the scouting department and construct the draft board. The franchise expects to enter the NFL Draft April 28 with 11 picks, including the second and 32nd overall choices.
Berry will report to Brown, who has final say on the 53-man roster. Brown, chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta and coach Hue Jackson report to owner Jimmy Haslam.
Like Brown and DePodesta, Berry is a graduate of Harvard University.
“I am truly excited about the opportunity to work with the Cleveland Browns,” Berry said in the release. “I look forward to collaborating with Hue, Sashi, Paul and the personnel staff to make the most informed decisions to benefit our organization.
“Hue is an outstanding coach with a diversity of expertise and proven track record of success, while I think Sashi and Paul are two of the brightest minds in all of professional sports. Jimmy and Dee [Haslam] have made it clear that they are committed to providing a winning team to the most passionate fan base in the NFL and this is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to building the perennial contender that Browns fans deserve.”
The Browns hired Berry after interviewing several candidates, including more experienced ones like Brian Xanders, Martin Mayhew, Dennis Hickey and Lionel Vital. Xanders, Mayhew and Hickey are former general managers.
Berry recently finished his seventh season with the Colts and fourth as their pro scouting coordinator. He spent his first two years with them as a scouting assistant before being promoted to a pro scout in 2011.
“Andrew Berry is one of the brightest young men we ever had the pleasure of working with,” former Colts President Bill Polian, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said in the release. “He came to us very early in his career and very soon we realized he was on a fast track. I am not surprised the Browns hired him for this very important position. I assure you he has both the capacity and the will to do an outstanding job. The Browns have made, in my humble opinion, a great hire.”
Berry was a four-year starter, a three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and a two-time All-America choice as a cornerback for Harvard. He graduated in four years with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in computer science.
“Andrew’s really special,” Harvard football coach Tim Murphy told the Harvard Crimson not long after Berry graduated in 2009. “For my two cents, he’ll be running an NFL team in 15 years. At 37 years old, he’ll be running an NFL franchise. I have no question.”
After Haslam fired coach Mike Pettine and General Manager Ray Farmer on Jan. 3 at the finish line of a 3-13 season, the Browns decided not to hire a GM. Instead, they opted to pair Brown, who’s transitioning from legal counsel, salary-cap specialist and contract negotiator to the head of football operations, with a talent evaluator who would receive the title of VP of player personnel. It turned out to be Berry.
“We think the GM role has expanded a ton,” Brown said last week, explaining why the title of GM would be discarded by the team. “We do feel like we want someone here who’s focused primarily on personnel and talent evaluation. It is critical to what we’ll be doing. So stretching him into other things was not something [we wanted]. It was important to get someone that was primarily and almost exclusively focused on [talent evaluation].”
So Brown will make the final call on player personnel decisions. Jackson and DePodesta will have significant authority as well.
But Berry will also be vital to talent acquisition, an area in which the Browns have struggled mightily during the vast majority of the expansion era.
“Andrew will be a great leader in our personnel department,” Jackson said in the release. “In spending time with Andrew, it is evident that he has a very strong understanding of the game. His substance and depth in his analysis of how to build a successful team and how he looks at individual players will be a great benefit to us moving forward.
“It is critical to not just rely on one individual but to have a leader in place that can bring together a comprehensive array of information from our talented and hard-working group of scouts and raise the strategic level and success of our approach.”
Four first-round selections were made on Farmer’s watch — cornerback Justin Gilbert (No. 8 overall) and quarterback Johnny Manziel (No. 22) in 2014, then nose tackle Danny Shelton (No. 12) and offensive lineman Cameron Erving (No. 19) in 2015 — and they have all struggled early in their careers.
Gilbert and Manziel appear to be lost causes. Shelton started slow but progressed later in his rookie season. Erving filled in last year because of injuries but was benched at one point because a lack of strength and proper technique hindered him.
Perhaps Farmer’s most glaring miss, though, occurred in free agency when he signed veteran wide receiver Dwayne Bowe in March to a two-year, $12.5 million contract, which includes $9 million in guarantees. Bowe was inactive in nine games and a healthy scratch in eight. He finished the season with five catches for 53 yards.
“We have not been good at talent acquisition,” Haslam said Jan. 3. “If you look at the teams that are successful, they’re very good at talent acquisition. That’s something that we have to get right, and we think this setup with somebody with a background in systems, processes, analytics and who’s very strategic [like Brown] married up with a football person, if you will, who is very good at talent evaluation, will hopefully put us in a position to win a lot more games than we have in the past.”
Berry is the football person — and another Harvard product — the Browns are betting on.