Is a shocking move, the Browns have "moved on" from their general manager Mike Lombardi, as well as their team CEO Joe Banner. This comes weeks after they let head coach Rob Chudzinski go after one season (the position that Josh McDaniels interviewed for).
This means that the three most pivotal positions in the Browns office have flipped after one rough season.
In Lombardi's place will be Ray Farmer, one of the potential candidates for the Miami Dolphins general manager position. Farmer turned down the Dolphins job (the same one that Nick Caserio went for), likely once he heard that there would be some discord in the Browns front office.
Lombardi is considered one of Patriots GM/Head Coach/Sithlord Bill Belichick's closest friends in the football game, having been promoted through the system in Cleveland during Belichick's first coaching stint.
Now that Lombardi is a free agent, would it make sense for Belichick to bring him into the Patriots organization? It would provide insurance in case Caserio makes his inevitable move out of the organization and would provide Lombardi with a Josh McDaniels-esque time frame to purge himself of the disaster surrounding his name.
While the Browns organization has been an absolute disaster, there's been some clear progress and direction under Lombardi.
He managed to flip a back-up quarterback (Colt McCoy) and a late rounder for a few picks in 2013.
He managed to rid the team of running back Trent Richardson and recuperate a first round pick.Apparently this was mostly orchestrated by Joe Banner.He brought in an excellent coaching unit, with DC Ray Horton, OC Norv Turner, and HC Chudzinski as key components.
He made the difficult decisions in purging some players with clear lack of a future in Cleveland in order to open up space for 2014.Space was mostly cleared up prior to his signing (delay in free money hitting the cap).
The reason that Belichick hasn't hired him before can be linked to strain in the relationship between Lombardi and the Dimitroff family (of Tom Dimitroff and current Altanta Falcons GM acclaim). Of course, this doesn't explain the past half-decade where Lombardi hasn't paired up with Belichick, so there remains some additional information that needs to be uncovered.