BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Following a shockingly awful 3-14 season, Browns executive vice president of football operations Andrew Berry offered his thoughts on the state of affairs Monday.
Here’s the top Brownie Bites from Berry.
Collective failure – Berry opened by providing as close to a mea culpa as one could give. “With a season where we just won three games and I really share in our fans' disappointment, frustration, quite honestly, I'm embarrassed with the results that we've had as a team this year,” Berry said. “Just plainly put, we didn't meet expectations. Our decisions coming into the year didn't meet expectations and ultimately that responsibility lies at my feet.” Berry also emphasized that the blame is shared throughout the organization from top to bottom. “I think everybody shares in the frustration of the season – our fans, our players, our coaches, ownership, football operations, everybody realizes that just the results weren't good enough,” Berry said. “That being said, I think there is shared ownership. It's not just one thing. There were areas where we could have buttressed the roster better. There were things that we could have done on the sidelines better. There were things that are best players, they have to play up to their potential. That's also an element of it, and so we all share in it because the reality of it is when you win three games, I wish it was just one thing, but it's a collective failure.
Setback – Berry revealed that Deshaun Watson suffered a setback following surgery to repair the ruptured Achilles suffered in Week 7 and the team learned of it during Watson’s exit physical on Monday. “We don't have all the details in everything yet, but it obviously it will extend the recovery process for him,” Berry said. “It is new information just learned in the past couple hours.” Berry did not want to speculate as to Watson’s availability for 2025. “Deshaun's invested in being here,” Berry said. “At no point has he given an indication in terms of not wanting to be here or leaving the city or anything along those lines. He's really focused on getting himself healthy and performing to a higher level.” Berry stopped short of expressing regret for making the trade for Watson or fully guaranteeing $230 million on the contract. “I think that to date the trade hasn't gone as we had hoped or anticipated, hasn't gone how the Deshaun has hoped or anticipated,” Berry said. “I think certainly a big part of it is the stop start with availability and that we never have gotten consistent performance at that position. I think there's a variety of factors in that that's not just the quarterback. We all share in culpability with that, but one thing is when you do looking, we've never been afraid to take big swings on things that we think can help the team and help the organization.”
Here to stay – Myles Garrett expressed his frustration with the losing and desire to see the team’s plans to turn it around. Berry didn’t sound the least bit worried about losing Garrett. “My anticipation expectation is that he'll have a direct ticket from Cleveland to Canton at the end of this year and expect him to be here and retire Brown,” Berry said.
Chubb’s future – Berry didn’t sound nearly as convincing when it came to Nick Chubb’s future with the team. “I think everybody in this room knows how much respect that we have for Nick and how much appreciation we have for not just like his exploits on the field, but who he is in the locker room and who he is as a person,” Berry said. “It’s always a challenging situation when one of your cornerstone players, their contract is up. That’s probably maybe a little bit the different situation this year relative to last, where there is maybe perhaps a little bit less control on the club side with it. Those are all decisions that we do have to work through the next several weeks. We love Nick. He’s going to be a ring of honor player for us, and we know that. In terms of the short term, that’s something that quite honestly, we just have to work through over the next several weeks.”
Retool, not rebuild – It sure didn’t sound like a massive burn it to the studs rebuild is in the offing for the franchise. “I don't envision an off season where we are moving on from a ton of core players,” Berry said. “I think a lot of the decisions as we think about some of the areas that we may need to strategically pivot is going to be about both short-term and long-term decisions. So I do expect there to be some turnover on the roster, but the idea that we would get rid of some of our cornerstone players, I don't necessarily see that as a viable path.”
