Kevin Jones: Cleveland's Analytics Approach Pitted Pettine & Farmer vs. Brown & Scheiner

Former Browns.com writer Kevin Jones has delivered some of the more compelling inside-stories from within the team's organization over the past three months. It started with the team's odd defensive schemes and later continued with an annihilation of Justin Gilbert's attitude and demeanor.

On Thursday, Jones published his next article on the Browns, this time discussing the team's new analytical approach and how a behind-the-scenes conflict emerged not between former head coach Mike Pettine and former GM Ray Farmer, but with them teaming up against the duo of Sashi Brown and Alec Scheiner. Here is a summary of Jones' article:

• His concern is that regardless of who the team hires to be their head coach and GM, there will be too much of a clash in cultures (the traditional coach/GM culture vs. the analytics culture). According to Jones, via a "top-level Browns source," this clash of cultures already happened this past season. Jones also quoted Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, who is viewed as a hot head coaching candidate, regarding how he vehemently dismissed the notion of analytics last November.
  
  
• Per Jones, "Farmer and Pettine were rarely willing to admit defeat when Brown and Scheiner had data proving some of their decisions were either off-base or inconsistent." Jones says team owner Jimmy Haslam "became enamored with Brown's intellect during these clashes," which was one of the reasons he's been put in the position he's in.
  
  
• I wholeheartedly believe that the Browns were trying to start pushing for analytics in 2014; that's why the team already had the groundwork laid for several months to hire Paul DePodesta as Chief Strategy Officer. It also might explain why team president Alec Scheiner was "in the football room" or "watching film" last year. With DePodesta on board now, Scheiner can presumably stay strictly in the business lane, while DePodesta and Brown work more closely together.
  
  
• Jones used to be in the same building as Brown, so he has some insight as to what it's like to be around him. If people are reciptive to the idea -- something that former Browns CEO Joe Banner talked about -- then there won't be any issues working with him. Also, if Jones' report on his scolding of Pettine and Farmer is true, it aligns with what many fans believed too:
  
  "Brown’s a smooth operator, and people inside the facility adore his demeanor and likability. In his dealings with Pettine and Farmer he rightfully scolded the pair for their defensive scheme and signing over-the-hill free agents."

Give the rest of Jones' article a read, as he discussed why he thinks there's no way Josh McCown is the team's starting quarterback in 2015, and that the new front office could very well take significant action on the roster statuses of Johnny Manziel, Joe Thomas, Karlos Dansby, and Joe Haden.