Browns GM opens up about hiring of Mike Vrabel as consultant

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski indicated at the NFL owners meetings that he was largely responsible for the club's hiring of former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel as a consultant. 

Per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Browns general manager Andrew Berry revealed on Tuesday that the Vrabel deal "came together pretty quickly" this offseason. 

"When Kevin and I talked about it initially, the open question was, 'OK, this is probably the first time in his life that he’s had a chance to step away and kind of relax away from football. Would he be even interested in coming aboard and helping?' And we learned very quickly that he was interested and if he wasn’t interested, his wife was probably going to make him be interested (laughing), that type of thing," Berry explained. 

The Browns giving the 2021 Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year a job roughly two months after the club suffered a humiliating 45-14 wild-card playoff loss at the Houston Texans understandably raised eyebrows among fans and analysts who immediately questioned Stefanski's status within the organization. 

Browns insider Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland/The Land on Demand later suggested that the move was at least somewhat related to Vrabel's desire to get back into coaching as soon as January 2025. Berry mentioned on Tuesday that Vrabel isn't expected to remain associated with the franchise for 12 full months. 

"Quite honestly, our assumption is that he’s going to be well back into the head coaching cycle next year, just being realistic," Berry added about Vrabel. "So we’re hopeful to use him as a resource and have a little fun with Mike along the way for the next year and then we’ll see how it goes from there." 

Cabot noted that Vrabel grew up a Browns fan and "jumped at the chance to help his hometown team." Before Vrabel spent his college days playing for the Ohio State Buckeyes, he graduated from Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls.

Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam shared at the meetings that the organization is "close" to signing contract extensions with both Berry and Stefanski. That's all well and good, but don't forget the Haslams gave quarterback Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed five-year, $230M deal to convince Watson to join the Browns from the Texans in March 2022. 

In short, the Haslams have a history of overspending to land what they view as an upgrade at a position.