No. 22: Paul DePodesta

What, exactly, does a chief strategy officer do for an NFL team? We’re about to find out. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam cast his lot with a new kind of front

What, exactly, does a chief strategy officer do for an NFL team? We’re about to find out. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam cast his lot with a new kind of front office, with young analytics devotees, led by this 43-year-old Harvard-educated veteran of baseball front offices. From the looks of it, DePodesta likes draft choices. The Browns had a league-high 14 this year, and have a league-high 19 total scheduled over the next two years. If the Browns rise from the bottom of the AFC North, more owners will look to hire similar outside-the-box thinkers.

— Peter King