Browns Could Try To Pair Mike McCarthy With Eliot Wolf As GM If Hired

The Cleveland Browns will begin their interviews on Thursday with former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy for their head coaching opening, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.  

The pairing of McCarthy and John Dorsey had always made sense since they had worked together for many years in Green Bay.

But, now that John Dorsey has been relieved of his duties as Browns GM, what could be the draw for McCarthy?

A pairing with Browns assistant GM in 2019 Eliot Wolf, according to reports from Cleveland.com.

Eliot Wolf and McCarthy spent 12 seasons with Green Bay together.

McCarthy is set to interview with the New York Giants this weekend and has already met with the Carolina Panthers about their head coaching vacancy.

Eliot Wolf has been viewed as a future GM for years.

While there isn’t much information to suggest how exactly Wolf would manage the Browns personnel, he has a uniquely extensive background at evaluating NFL talent at just 37 years old.

Wolf arrived in Cleveland two years ago after being passed up for the GM position with the Packers.

Elliot’s father Ron Wolf is revered in Green Bay after building a Super Bowl team in the ’90s led by Brett Favre.

The Packers hired the younger Wolf in 2004 as a pro personnel assistant.

He was promoted five times through the ranks of the organization to the position of director of football operations by 2017.

Wolf learned to evaluate players at a young age from his father and began writing player evaluations at 14 years old.

He was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and become the next GM of the Packers after receiving several interviews for positions around the league.

Green Bay passed on Wolf when he was expected to take over the job his father once held.

The Packers went with a different candidate from within the organization in Brian Gutekunst.

The move was a surprise and disappointment to more than just the Wolf family.

“I was a little bit surprised that Eliot Wolf didn’t get the job,” Brett Favre said on a CBS Sports podcast at the time of the move. “I thought, and still think, I’m surprised that he doesn’t have a job as a GM somewhere, somehow. It’s a little bit shocking to me.”

There wasn’t much Eliot could do at that point but move on from the Packers.

“At least he had the opportunity to interview for it,” Ron Wolf said at the time. “Obviously the people up there don’t think he’s worthy or they would’ve hired him.”

John Dorsey went after Wolf as soon as the Packers made their decision to hire Gutekunst.

Dorsey and Wolf spoke the same language in football terms, as Eliot’s father Ron described it.

Ron Wolf was a mentor to Dorsey during his time working as a scout for the Packers when Wolf was GM.

The sense of trust that Dorsey and Wolf shared extended to Dorsey’s relationship with Eliot as well.

The chance at leading an organization could finally arrive for Wolf

As frustrating as the 2019 season was for the Browns it became clear the team would look for a new path forward, not just at coach but at GM too.

It is unclear how much of a new direction Wolf would take the Browns in, but he represents a younger face at the head of the franchise.

Wolf might offer an opportunity to turn the page to a new era while not dramatically shifting the entire make-up of the front office.

As they look for their 6th GM in the last decade, the hope for the Browns is likely that Wolf (if hired) can use his player evaluation expertise to build talent throughout the team and gain much-needed stability for years to come as one of the youngest general managers in the NFL.