I think people need a better understanding of what DePodesta does.
Just because he went to Harvard doesn’t mean he’s the Browns NFL salary cap guru, because he’s not.
From as best I can tell, DePodesta’s main role with the organization is creating processes to find and then exploit market inefficiencies, whatever those may be.
It could be something on the nose with player evaluation like (JUST a hypothetical example) “research and data has shown that drafted OL have a higher bust rate than other positions and the ones that don’t bust it takes longer to develop into competent starters, so we will choose to agreeesively address that position in free agency rather than using draft assets” or “players with these key athletic testing benchmarks have a higher hit rate, so we’ll focus our efforts there in the later rounds” or it could be more subtle like what the players eat, how long the practice, etc.
The NFL is a hive. It’s full of group think and “football guys” doing things off feel and gut. There’s a wealth of information at every teams fingertips that they can use to go along with their gut that can make decisions easier
Almost everyone zigs. If you find places to zag before anyone else, chances are very high you’ll be able to exploit those inefficiencies before everyone else starts doing it.
Paul isn’t even based in Ohio. This idea that he’s the Ivy League educated bean counter negotiating contracts with free agents and evaluating draft picks seems misguided at best, totally wrong at worst.