What does the Browns’ new regime want in the team’s culture? Here’s what we’ve learned so far

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- New Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski kept going back to certain words and phrases on Wednesday when new hires were brought up, regarding both Andrew Berry and the coaches he was hiring.

First, on offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt: “I think he is a really fine man, first of all. He is a family man. He is of the highest integrity, which matters a lot to me and to this organization."

Then on Berry: “Another man of high integrity. A great family man.”

He sounded a similar tune when Joe Woods, who had yet to be hired at the time, was mentioned.

Why was it so important for Stefanski to mention these things?

“You have to start there,” he said. “I want good people and good coaches, but I am starting with good people. I can promise you as we have gone through this process, it was not important to me to hire a staff in a day. We could have done that, but that would have not been the best thing for the Browns. It has been so important to make sure we are adding the right people with diversity of thought, diversity of race, gender, all of the above, age or you name it, but making sure that it is the right mix of people first and foremost.”

We heard from the Browns’ top two decision-makers last Wednesday. Here is what stood out from what they had to say about how they view building their team’s culture.

Preaching alignment

What was the big talking point from this coach and GM search? Alignment.

“I think you all know me well enough, we never say anything bad about people that are not here,” owner Jimmy Haslam said last week. “I just think you have really smart people with low egos who continually want to learn and get better, do not care who gets the credit and it is all about winning. I can’t say it any more basic than that.”

Ego is relative, especially in the competitive world of the NFL, but just go all the way back to Stefanski’s opening press conference when he quoted Harry Truman.

“‘It is amazing what you can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit,’” Stefanski said, “and that is what I believe we have in our building.”

Berry pointed to the word of the Browns offseason when he spoke last week.

“What makes me confident is just how aligned we are, our shared vision with football, with culture and with servant leadership,” he said. “Look, success is never guaranteed, but what I can say is we are going to work together, we are going to work hard and we are going to work collaboratively across football operations and our coaching staff as we strive to turn this thing around and develop sustained success.”

It’s easy to be aligned in February. Things can change when the games start in September and real adversity hits, the type of adversity that makes an owner with an itchy trigger finger uncomfortable. Still, knowing what we know about the two top faces of the organization, it’s hard not to think these two aren’t as aligned as any duo Haslam has put together. Haslam also appears to have stuck to his promise to let Paul DePodesta drive this search.

So alignment achieved for now. Down the line, the best way to keep things aligned is to turn alignment into winning.

How it impacts roster building

One of the lessons Berry pointed to when asked what he learned during his year in Philadelphia was about putting together the 53-man roster.

“The importance of being deliberate in building the team and having the right 53 and the right mix of not only people but skillsets on the roster as opposed to just purely collecting talent,” he said.

In other words, as many Browns skeptics liked to say before last season, this isn’t Madden.

Former GM John Dorsey came into the job with the pedal to the floor, sending players he didn’t want packing and adding as much talent as possible as quickly as possible. Some of it worked -- Jarvis Landry has been the team’s best receiver and an established leader. Some of it didn’t work -- Antonio Callaway never got going in Year No. 2 and was waived in the face of another possible suspension.

On the other side, Dorsey’s predecessor, Sashi Brown, went too young and was unable to find the right mix of veterans across the roster to complement all the youth he added.

You can’t have all choir boys and you’re never going to have 53 guys in a locker room sitting around singing “Kumbaya,” but building a cohesive roster is important to team success.

Berry pointed to the Eagles’ emphasis on really getting to know the 53-man roster on a personal level.

“I think that is something that is done very, very well in Philadelphia,” he said, “and it is one of those things that really creates a tight-knit family culture that helps you navigate through those stretches of adversity.”

We just spent a season listening to a head coach preach about blocking out noise, about how if you don’t wear orange and brown you don’t matter, so, just like with alignment, words and actions have to match. Still, Berry’s year away with a winning organization in Philadelphia, one who overcame a rash of injuries to win their division, should help him understand how to build a roster that can stand a little adversity.

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