Jimmy Haslam discusses relationship with Bill Parcells, role in NFL Draft

What a difference a year makes. About this time in 2013, Jimmy Haslam was reassuming his role as chairman of Pilot Flying J, placing the Cleveland Browns in the hands of Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi, and speaking only through press releases and legal filters. There was a point where the team he had just purchased was merely a line item within a world in disarray. Today, though still under the microscope of legal scrutiny, the team’s majority owner has reassumed his role of a hands-on owner, sitting down with Browns beat writer Tony Grossi to discuss the lay of the land in Berea.

Grossi and Haslam discussed the team’s relationship with Alex Mack (Jimmy believes Alex wants to play in Cleveland), Bill Parcells (he’s not coming to Cleveland), and Brian Hoyer (he’s a “gamer.”). But the biggest takeaway, in what was another offseason of front office turmoil and severed solid and dotted lines, is the fact that Haslam says that the NFL Draft will be entirely in the hands of general manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine.

“We will agree strategically that these are the positions we’ll concentrate on, but Ray and Mike and the football guys will make those football decisions,” said Haslam. “Zero chance [I tell Ray to draft a certain player or position]. We will have so many conversations between now and the draft about who we’re picking, this position or that one, who are the top three or four. We will be all planned out. That’s what getting ready’s all about. We’ll all participate.”

Given the current organizational structure, with Farmer, Pettine and team president Alec Scheiner reporting directly through Haslam, it appears, at least in quote, that things are headed in the right direction—a far cry from this mess, anyway.