SITE NEWS: Andrew Healy Moves On

It's time to say goodbye to another member of the Football Outsiders staff as he moves on to bigger and better things, but this one is kind of special.

Andrew Healy will be leaving both Football Outsiders and the economics department at Loyola Marymount University to join the front office of the Cleveland Browns. He becomes the first person from our staff to join an NFL franchise. His official title is Senior Strategist for Player Personnel, and he'll be working with Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, and all those guys as they try to end Cleveland's long string of losing seasons.

And you thought we were kidding with that line in the Cleveland chapter of FOA 2016 about the staff of FO going to work for the Browns?

Actually, we were kidding. Rob Weintraub wrote his original rough draft of that chapter before the Browns even contacted Andrew.

I've always taken pride in my "coaching tree" of former FO writers who have prominent roles around the world of NFL journalism. This adds a unique branch to the tree. It's important for us to still be honest and objective in our analysis of Cleveland's personnel moves, but I can't lie, I certainly would like for Andrew and his team to be successful. (Scott Kacsmar and Rob Weintraub may feel differently.)

Sterling Xie will be taking over the Any Given Sunday column this season, and we'll have news soon on new writers for Scramble for the Ball. (Scramble for the Ball: the True Detective of Football Outsiders columns!)