Browns GM Andrew Berry’s inner circle has successful brain trust from other sports

Because of the unique time in the sports calendar when it happened, the Cleveland Browns trade of DE Myles Garrett happened quickly and has lingered in our consciousness without much to move it forward. New Browns DE Jared Verse attended OTAs and spoke to the media, as did Garrett with the Los Angeles Rams, but the big move happened at a time with not much other action going on.

Since the trade, we’ve learned that Verse really was the key to the trade happening, that GM Andrew Berry made sure a clause was added to try to keep Garrett out of the AFC North, and it gave us time to review the three biggest trades the Browns have made in the last year plus.

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated also documented how the trade went down over time between Cleveland and Los Angeles. One interesting note from Breer’s piece is that Berry has a “think tank” of executives from other sports that he processes things with:

Berry is part of a sort of think tank/buddy group of executives across sports that includes St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti and Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas. And both Bloom and Presti had been in Berry’s shoes.

Both Bloom and Presti seemed to reinforce Berry’s goal of bringing back more than just draft picks when trading away Garrett, referencing their trades of Paul George and Mookie Betts previously.

The three teams represented in the “buddy group” are generally well-respected, successful teams. The Thunder won the NBA title last year, the Penguins have had winning records in all but one of the last two decades (including a Stanley Cup), and the Red Sox are one of the biggest names in MLB (despite missing the playoffs in three of the last five seasons), including two World Series titles since 2013.

In many ways, Berry’s Browns are the outlier of the group when it comes to success on the field/court/ice.

What do you think about Berry being involved with the other 3 more successful sports executives in this “thinktank/buddy group”?