CLEVELAND, Ohio — Kevin Stefanski wasn’t enough to lure George Paton out of Minnesota after all.

Paton, the assistant general manager of the Vikings, pulled his name from the Browns’ GM search on Friday afternoon after spending eight hours at team headquarters Wednesday in his second interview for the job, a league source told cleveland.com.

Flown in from Minnesota on the Haslams’ private jet, Paton headed back home Wednesday night with some reservations about the organizational structure and his role. Although he would’ve had final say over the roster, he was still working through some things when he picked up the phone on Friday afternoon to inform the Browns he was out.

They’ll now refocus their efforts on trying to hire Eagles Vice President of Football Operations Andrew Berry, who was Browns Vice President of Player Personnel from 2016-18. But there’s no guarantee that will happen either.

Berry, who left the Browns in February to join the Eagles, is also on the radar of the Carolina Panthers, who requested permission to interview him for their Executive Vice President of Football Operations job. The Eagles haven’t granted permission because the position doesn’t include final say over the roster, but it could possibly be revisited after the NFL Draft in April.

A favorite of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, Berry interviewed Jan. 17 at Browns headquarters, as did Patriots Director of College Scouting Monti Ossenfort.

One source told cleveland.com that Browns coach Kevin Stefanski wanted Paton “in the worst way’’ because of their 13-year history in Minnesota, where they helped the team to six playoff campaigns and two NFC title games in that span.

But Stefanski also really likes Berry, with whom he hit it off during the coaching search last year, when he was passed over for the job by former GM John Dorsey in favor of Freddie Kitchens. Stefanski, favored by Berry and DePodesta during last year’s search, was eager to work with Berry last year and that hasn’t changed, a source said. They’re also both Ivy-Leaguers like DePodesta, and would provide Jimmy Haslam with the organizational alignment he’s been seeking since he took over in 2012.

It was the Browns’ desire to bring Berry back into the fold that almost caused Paton to turn down the interview in the first place. The career-long right-hand man of Vikings GM Rick Spielman, Paton is a sought-after GM candidate who’s turned down many opportunities to interview over the years, including multiple requests from the Jets and one from the Dolphins.

Paton was a finalist for the 49ers GM job in 2017 that went to John Lynch, and was one of six candidates to interview for the Colts job that went to Chris Ballard in 2017.

The Browns’ job just wasn’t a fit, even though he enjoyed his two interviews and was intrigued by the prospect of being reunited with Stefanski. That was the reason he accepted the initial interview on Jan. 18 in the first place. Working with his longtime colleague would’ve been akin to hiring his own coach. But the Browns’ job comes with challenges, as has been widely documented.

Paton would’ve been the sixth Browns general manager since the Haslams took over in 2012. With as many as a half-dozen GM jobs possibly coming open over the next year, Paton could have numerous opportunities to write his own ticket.

In Cleveland, he would’ve had to work within the organizational framework of DePodesta, himself and Stefanski all reporting to ownership, which includes Jimmy and Dee Haslam and their son-in-law JW Johnson, Executive Vice President of the team.

DePodesta is Jimmy Haslam’s right-hand man, and oversees the analytics team, which will have a larger role in personnel and coaching decisions. It’s a setup that Berry completely understands because he was here for two seasons under Brown and one under Dorsey. But it’s foreign to some candidates and something that takes longer than a few days to completely grasp.

DePodesta’s contract is up, but he said last week ‘I’ll be here’ as Haslam has no plans to let him go. So anyone taking the job must understand that Haslam will still have DePodesta in his ear and on the same rung on the business flow chart, despite the fact the GM will have final say over the roster.

The Browns are confident, however, that their analytics-driven approach will work this time because Stefanski and their new GM will embrace it. In the first two years with Sashi Brown as head of football, he was completely at odds with Hue Jackson because he had no experience evaluating talent. In Dorsey’s two seasons, he and his top personnel men were analytics-averse and at odds with DePodesta and his crew.

But Stefanski is already on record praising DePodesta, so that’s a good start.

"Paul comes at it from such a unique perspective,'' Stefanski said last week on Sirius XM NFL radio. "We’re lucky to have that perspective. He’s a collaborative person, a collaborative thinker and we’ve already had some really good discussions about what the future of this franchise holds.''

Now, they must find a general manager who’s amenable to the setup, and obviously Paton wasn’t.

Question is, will Berry be?

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