Former NFL General Manager Returns to Cleveland for Third Stint With the Team

A mentor for Andrew Berry has taken up a senior advisory role with the Browns

Nov 14, 2013; Nashville, TN, USA; Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson before the game against the Tennessee Titans at LP Field. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Browns recently announced a pair of front office moves, a minor shakeup upstairs for the franchise.

On one hand, Chris Cooper has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Football Administration, after serving as the team’s Vice President of Football Administration for the last seven years. He’s set to begin his 13th campaign with the Browns.

The other move could be more interesting, as the team has hired Ryan Grigson in a senior football advisor capacity. 

For Grigson, it will be the third time he’s been a part of Cleveland’s front office.

Grigson is probably most remembered in league circles for his four-year tenure as general manager for the Indianapolis Colts, from 2012 to 2016. Almost as he was walking through the door in Indy, he saw Peyton Manning say goodbye to the only team he had known until then, and then oversaw the selection of quarterback Andrew Luck as the first overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. He also oversaw the selection of wideout T.Y. Hilton in the fourth round of that same draft. 

However, Grigson’s rule was also littered with such uninspiring draft picks as first-rounders Bjoern Werner and Phillip Dorsett and second-rounder Jack Mewhort. He also made a few questionable free agency additions such as LaRon Landry and Gosder Cherilous, none of them working out in Indianapolis. 

Grigson’s most recent role was as assistant general manager for the Minnesota Vikings last year, after spending three years as senior vice president of player personnel. Recently, Minny announced a series of moves under new general manager Nolan Teasley, including appointing former Browns’ executive Andrew Healy as one of the team’s two assistant general managers, along with Trent Kirchner. In Cleveland, Healy was vice president of research and strategy.

What does Ryan Grigson’s addition mean for the Browns?

The title is very ambiguous and open: senior football advisor.

This is nothing new for Grigson, as he served under that same title for one year in Cleveland back in 2020 and 2021, under current general manager Andrew Berry. 

Before that, Grigson spent one year as senior personnel executive with the Browns in 2017, another pretty ambiguous role. At that time, Berry was vice president of player personnel, while Sashi Brown carried the title of executive vice president. 

Grigson and Berry go way back, to when the latter served as pro scouting coordinator for the Colts from 2012-2015, with Grigson as Indy’s GM.

Grigson will probably now help Berry out with personnel matters at a time when the team is still looking for a quarterback, but the vague nature of an advisory role points to this likely being just a short-term deal, while the former finds a higher position with another team.