CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta is leaving for Colorado and a return to baseball, a league source confirmed to News 5's Camryn Justice.
DePodesta is set to become the president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, marking a return to the sport where he started his career.
The chief strategy officer began his role with the Browns in 2016 and received a five-year contract extension in 2021.
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Many observers noted an analytics-focused shift with the Browns under his watch.
In his position, DePodesta was in Berea about once a month, joining Monday meetings to break down what they'd seen from opponents and the success of their game plans from previous games, and using that data to adjust their approach.
He described his job as defining the team and its processes, and ensuring they can continue implementing them as they add new staff and players to the roster.
"I think my role really first and foremost is to not only help us create, but also implement, that shared vision and then ultimately make sure that we stick to it, really relentlessly and that's really my role," DePodesta said in 2020. "I look at all the processes that are within a football operation. Whether that, again, whether that is hiring someone, whether that is how we do scouting, whether it is how we look at things with numbers. I sort of dig into all those processes and make sure that they align with our vision and that we all as a group continue to stay aligned and be on the same page."
DePodesta gained fame outside the world of sports when he was depicted by Jonah Hill in the movie “Moneyball.”
