Report: Browns to Interview Patriots Scouting Director Monti Ossenfort For GM Job
According to Tom Pelissero of NFL.com, the Cleveland Browns intend to interview New England Patriots scouting director Monti Ossenfort for their open general manager job. Ossenfort is approaching his 19th year in the NFL with 16 of them with the Patriots. He assumed the role of scouting director in 2014.
The interview is expected to take place on Friday and is the third person known to be interviewing for this position, including Andrew Berry of the Philadelphia Eagles and George Paton of the Minnesota Vikings. This is Ossenfort's first general manager interview, but only because he was blocked from interviewing for the Houston Texans general manager position a few years ago.
New head coach Kevin Stefanski has joined the search committee that selected him to now pick the team's general manager. That committee includes ownership, Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta and Vice President of Football Administration Chris Cooper.
The timeline for the general manager search is expected to take no longer than two weeks. DePodesta told Cleveland Browns Daily on Wednesday he does not expect to interview as many candidates for this position as the eight they did for the head coaching position. Ossenfort is the first candidate without a direct connection to anyone in the Browns organization.
