The new GM will be Stefanski's choice

Lemme see if I have this right . . .

The new head coach of the Cleveland Browns will, in effect, interview candidates for the general manager vacancy. It is being reported Kevin Stefanski could take as long as two weeks to make that determination.

Jimmy Haslam III has given his new head coach a huge say in the selection. The owner ostensibly has the final call, but he wants alignment within the organization and choosing someone who is not Stefanski’s choice is anything but aligning.

Suffice it to say Stefanski’s choice will be the Browns’ next general manager. If not, trouble looms. Either way, the new GM will be his new boss. If the lucky guy is Stefanski’s man, it will be interesting to see who ranks higher on the flow chart.

The general manager on National Football League teams is usually the architect of the 53-man roster, not the head coach unless he holds a dual title such as Bill Belichick in New England.

As for the GM candidates, two of the three currently mentioned so far have qualifications that lead one to believe the future looks bright with regard to talent evaluation.

Monti Ossenfort, director of scouting for New England, is a 17-year NFL veteran, 14 with the Patriots. And Minnesota assistant general manager George Paton has been with the Vikings for 12 years and knows Stefanski well. Both men are employed by teams with a strong history of draft success.

Then there is Andrew Berry, who spent three years with the Browns as vice president of player personnel before moving to Philadelphia a year ago to become vice president of football operations for the Eagles.

The presence of John Dorsey with the Browns shunted Berry into the background and was probably the main factor he chose to move on and land in Philadelphia. Now with Dorsey gone, it is believed he would welcome a return to Cleveland.

He reportedly has two advocates for that return in Haslam and Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, who worked together during the dark days of tanking just a few years ago.

At that time, Berry was the club’s top talent evaluator under non-football man Sashi Brown. Together they managed the two-year tank job the Browns engineered in 2016 and 2017. Brown had the final say, but Berry was the personnel guy.

He has a rather dubious résumé in those two seasons of drafting. In 2016, Brown opted to trade out of the No. 2 overall spot, passing on quarterback Carson Wentz. DePodesta, the baseball man, infamously suggested Wentz was not a top 20 quarterback.

The next year, the Browns traded out of the No. 12 overall slot, passing on quarterback Deshaun Watson. Two franchise quarterbacks gone. Just like that. The ridicule that followed was warranted. Brown made the ultimate decisions, but Berry was a part of it.

In those two lamentable seasons, the Browns under Brown and Berry selected 24 players (14 in 2016). That right there constitutes almost half a roster if all made the final team.

Only five – linebacker Joe Schobert and wide receiver Rashard Higgins from 2016 and defensive end Myles Garrett, tight end David Njoku and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi from the 2017 class – remain on the current roster. And Schobert and Higgins might be gone by next training camp.

The point here is obvious. With numbers like that for Berry, who would you want to be your next general manger? I’d opt for the likes of Ossenfort and Paton, who would arrive with more draft gravitas than Berry.

And just the other day came the news the Browns could wind up interviewing as many as five candidates for the GM vacancy. Why not 10? Or 15? What’s the hurry? Gotta get the right guy.

Of course that’s ridiculous. So are five candidates. Three is plenty. If you need more, you’re either not totally satisfied with any of the top three or you are complicating what should be a simple process.

The dysfunction churns on.