May 22, 2013

Ray Farmer reportedly the favorite to land Browns GM job

January 15, 2013 by 22 Comments

The Cleveland Browns have interviewed Ray Farmer for their presently open general manager/player personnel position. Interviews reportedly occurred last Thursday and once again on Monday.

Farmer, the current Director of Pro Personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs, is said to be the current leader for the position. Many are piecing together the two interviews — one taking place before the hiring of Rob Chudzinski, the other after his hire — firmly place the 38-year-old graduate of Duke University ahead of others like the perpetually mentioned Mike Lombardi. Minnesota’s George Paton and Seattle’s John Idzik were also in the mix.

Farmer spent seven seasons with the Chiefs. He joined them after a four-year run with the Atlanta Falcons as their pro scout. In 1996, he was a fourth-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles where he played linebacker. At Duke, he was a two-time All-ACC standout while also being a member of the Academic All-Conference team.

The Browns fired general manager Tom Heckert on Dec. 31. They have not commented on any interviewees or potential candidates for the presently vacant position.

[Related: Is Derek Anderson joining the Browns to teach or start?]

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  • Natedawg86

    We are farmer, bum, ba bum, ba bum bum bum

  • FearTheRoo

    This is smart. Because when you look at KC they were a stacked team. How they didn’t make the playoffs is beyond me. HC from Carolina, OC from San Diego, and maybe DC from Jacksonville? All very talented teams and Derek Anderson as QB. Joe Banner is a genius…

  • Roosevelt

    I commented on the Anderson thread that the series of moves following the end of the season seems deliberately designed to troll Browns fans. This is just another such move. What I don’t get is how they were able to determine who to hire from which team, since both KC and Jacksonville were 2-14. My guess is that since Jacksonville was 30th in defense while KC was a respectable 20th, it was important to get the defensive guy from Jacksonville, leaving the GM spot for the executive from the team with the worse personnel.

  • SteamingPileOfCraphonsoThorpe

    So, as Director of Pro Personnel, he would have had a hand in signing the great Peyton Hillis…unless he was a director in name only, and Pioli was actually the driving force. Of course, I will take the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Head Janitor over Lombardi, so if this would mean he was out, I’m for it.

  • Jack

    KC actually has a lot of good players. Most did not expect them to play as poorly as they did, and a lot of that had to do with the QB position and a terrible head coach.

    Stuff these comments in a sack.

  • SteamingPileOfCraphonsoThorpe

    Great executives can come from unsuccessful organizations – the talent on KC’s roster is actually pretty good, but they had Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn as QB options, and Uncle Romeo as the head coach. The record is pretty unsurprising. The Browns crushing the Chiefs was due in large part to the ineffectiveness of BQ, if you’ll recall.

  • vespo09

    TBH, the Chiefs should be better than they are. Jamaal Charles, Dwayne Bowe, Brandon Flowers, Eric Berry, Tamba Hali and Derrick Johnson are all really good.

  • mgbode

    Justin Houston as well. Their defense in 2011 w/ Romeo as DC was pretty good. It fell apart this year (and more than the injuries should have led to).

  • Roosevelt

    So if Heckert was fired for not getting a good QB, where does that leave this clown?

  • SteamingPileOfCraphonsoThorpe

    Well, I submit that you are muddying the waters a bit there, as Heckert was not fired for not getting a QB, he was fired because Joe Banner wanted to put himself at the top of the football org chart and he and Haslam wanted their own management team. As for KC’s situation, if you connect the dots, Pioli came from New England and ran things the Bellichick Way (which is to say, a paranoid, Big-Brother type organization with Pioli in charge of everything and everyone afraid to make a move without his blessing), so the move to bring Cassel (from New England, remember) was likely orchestrated by him. Quinn, no idea.

    I’m not saying that Farmer is great, only that it’s probably hard to separate how many moves were truly on him, and how many were fully controlled by Pioli; “clown” seems a bit harsh, but who really knows for sure? I do remember reading an article about how Pioli had completely gutted the Chiefs’ Front Office, and the only ones left were miserable, that it was like living under Josef Stalin. And since he was GM, final authority rested with him, too.

  • Hopwin

    Does that mean I can ask Farmer for playoff tickets next year?

  • BenRM

    Why do the Browns continue to hire people who fail in other cities?

  • http://twitter.com/expressojf Joseph Fedorko

    Dude? The Chiefs have more Pro Bowlers than the Browns. Their issue was coaching — as anyone who remembers Romeo Crennel should be able to figure out.

  • @TheDeePagel

    I heard his daughter is something…

  • dwhit110

    speaking of trolls…

  • saggy

    hard to imagine an NFL executive living a life comparable to a gulag camp.

  • WFNY_DP
  • deesh

    all of you nay-sayers are aware the Chiefs had 5 Pro Bowlers this year right? And none of them are a center & a kicker?

  • WFNY_DP

    And that one of their Pro Bowlers was NOT Brady Quinn.

  • Garry_Owen

    Have you seen the commercial? Best thing on TV ever.

  • CBI

    Uhoh… Let’s not forget the last time we had a Duke linebacker employed by the Browns…

  • SteamingPileOfCraphonsoThorpe

    I have a Dramatic License in my wallet; it’s right next to my Beastie Boys’ Fan Club License to Ill. Point is, no one disagreed with Pioli and those that tried ended up shipped out (to unemployment, rather than Siberia), and he had his spies everywhere. Less than life-threatening but not a great work atmosphere.