Exclusive Interview with Ex-Head of Football Operations of the Cleveland Browns: Sashi Brown

I had the honorable pleasure to interview former Executive Vice President of football operations and general manager for the Cleveland Browns, Sashi Brown. Infamously known for his tumultuous term with the Cleveland Browns. Sashi gave me insight and reasoning behind some of his most memorable decisions. Before this meeting, I viewed Sashi as someone who knew very little about football due to questionable decision making. However, when I reevaluate our discussion, he knows quite a lot about football and sports in general. Sashi Brown was appointed the Executive Vice President football operations on January 3^rd, 2016, and was fired a little under two years later on December 7^th, 2017. During his tenure, the Browns won one game and went a ridiculous 1-27. He was scrutinized by Browns fans for making decisions, such as cutting All-Pro Joe Haden, trading for Brock Osweiler, and passing on first-round quarterbacks such as Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson. When discussing his tenure, Sashi said his hardest challenge was flipping the roster and laying the works for a successful team. Sashi said that Cleveland fans did not grasp and embrace the rebuild as well as other franchises like the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia 76ers. Sashi stated it was tough taking the oldest roster in the league and attempting to get rid of veteran talent. By getting rid of veterans to make the roster younger, it set the team up for the future but also made the team more inexperienced and affected the team’s play on Sunday’s. This answer surprised me and made me think differently about how Sashi’s tenure with the Browns went. I remember being disgruntled and mocking Browns fans for their lack of wins and talent but hearing this statement made me think differently. Sashi laid the foundation for the Cleveland Browns who this year were put in a position where they had endless cap space, young talent like Myles Garrett, Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward. The Browns were able to acquire QB Tyrod Taylor, who had the best TD to Interception ratio last year. They acquired Pro-Bowl WR Jarvis Landry, and also young Damarious Randall. All these moves will not be attributed to Sashi but he certainly helped by setting the team up to make moves like this. My last question to Sashi went directly at him. I asked him what happened to the fumbled AJ McCarron trade that the Browns front office had in place. If you do not know, the Browns had agreed to acquire AJ McCarron in exchange for a second and third-round draft picks in the 2018 NFL draft. The Bengals publicly blamed the Browns front office for failing to send paperwork in. However, Sashi told me “you don’t trade a second and third round pick for a QB on an expiring contract.” This quote leads me to believe that Sashi sabotaged the trade and purposely did not send in the trade information to the league office in order to void the trade last minute. In a Bengals statement, they state “Cleveland needed to send its own signed documentation to the league and communicate directly with the NFL in order to execute the trade before the deadline.” This voided trade led ultimately to the end of Sashi Brown’s tenure in Cleveland.