CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Talkin' about the Cleveland Browns front office:

1. General manager John Dorsey is hiring people he knows. He worked with new assistant general manager Eliot Wolf and V.P. player personnel Alonzo Highsmith in Green Bay. When the Packers demoted general manager Ted Thompson, Wolf thought he had shot at the job. Instead, the Packers hired Brian Gutekunst. That led to Wolf's availability.

2. Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press Gazette Media wrote that Gutekunst wanted Wolf to stay as assistant GM. Gutekunst said he wanted to give Wolf more experience in college scouting. Most of his work has been scouting the pro players.

3. Highsmith was with the Packers for 19 years, a college scout for 13 of those seasons. I heard that is his strength. He is very connected with college coaches. Like Dorsey, he came up through the scouting ranks.

4. There are reasons to be upbeat about the new front office. Wolf really is highly regarded around the NFL. He is not just a guy living off his father's reputation. Promoted five times with the Packers, he was sought by Oakland for a position similar to the Browns. He's only 35 and will likely become a general manager at some point.

5. My guess is Wolf picked Cleveland over Oakland because his knowledge of Dorsey and Highsmith, having worked with them. Oakland GM Reggie McKenzie worked for the Packers from 1994-2012. So he knows Wolf. But Oakland just made Jon Gruden a $100 million coach. That gives him a lot of power, and that could make things very interesting in Oakland.

6. Dorsey's strength is talent evaluation. Wolf can help him with running the front office and the big picture stuff. In Kansas City, Dorsey received some criticism for the handling of the salary cap and some communication issues. Wolf can be an asset in those areas.

7. Ken Kovash was V.P. player personnel under Sashi Brown. He is an analytics guy, and returns to the "strategy department." Paul DePodesta is chief strategy officer. Hard to know how much influence they will have in the new front office.

8. The Browns also have kept Andrew Berry, who has the title of V.P. of player personnel, same as Highsmith. I like Berry and think he has a chance to move up the NFL ladder. The Browns keep adding guys to the front office with Dorsey, which makes sense. He needs his own people. My guess is Berry is wise enough to be a good team player with the new setup.

9. The Browns only fired Sashi Brown and senior personnel executive Ryan Grigson (a former Colts GM). As one executive texted me, "Only Sashi is fired?" I thought it was a fair question. He could have added Grigson, but he was a minor figure in the front office.

ABOUT CHRIS TABOR

A few fans have been writing me for months wanting the special teams coach to be fired. He left last week and was quickly hired as Chicago's new special teams coach. He had worked for the Bears before coming to the Browns in 2011.

I'm not going to debate Tabor's merits. When the Browns gave him some veterans on special teams, he tended to have solid units. When the Browns filled special teams with young players the last two seasons, the Browns had problems.

Here is where the Browns' special teams ranked in the last five years by Football Outsiders:

2013: 14th

2014: 14th

2015: 15th

2016: 26th

2017: 27th

This much I do know: John Dorsey had very good special teams when he was running the Kansas City Chiefs:

2013: 1st

2014: 3rd

2015: 8th

2016: 1st

2017: 4th

Kansas City's special teams coach is David Toub. He is not available. But I have an idea:

Hire Brad Seely.

The Raiders special teams coach may become available as Jon Gruden shakes up the staff. Seely has been an elite special teams coach since 1989. He was with the Browns from 2009-10. He made his reputation in New England and was close to Eric Mangini, which is why he came to Cleveland.

Seely is exactly who the Browns need.

ABOUT MIKE PETTINE

The Browns are finally done paying Mike Pettine. I heard he signed a four-year, $12 million deal in 2014 to be head coach, then was fired after two seasons.

He sat out the last two seasons. Now, he is Green Bay's new defensive coordinator. That's right: The Browns have hired two former Packer executives (Wolf and Highsmith) and Green Bay hired a former Browns head coach (Pettine).

1. It's hard to evaluate Pettine's two seasons here. He was hired by owner Jimmy Haslam along with CEO Joe Banner and GM Mike Lombardi. A few weeks after Pettine arrived, Haslam fired Banner and Lombardi.

2. Haslam promoted Ray Farmer to general manager. Farmer never even interviewed Pettine during the coaching search, nor did he know him. This was a football shotgun marriage -- destined to fail.

3. The 2014 first round was a disaster with Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel. Haslam was the driving force for Manziel. Gilbert appears to have been a Pettine/Farmer idea.

4. It didn't take long for mistrust to develop. Farmer was suspended four games for texting team personnel on the Browns sideline during games. The Browns were fined $250,000.

5. Fair or not, the coaching staff began to believe Farmer was second-guessing them during the 2014 season. It began a nasty situation.

6. I didn't see anything special in Pettine as a head coach. But the Manziel circus and other off-field issues make it hard to judge. I thought his decision to turn the defense completely over to Jimmy O'Neil in 2015 was a major blunder.

7. Pettine was a well-regarded defensive coordinator when hired by the Browns. He now has the role in Green Bay, and it could work. Pettine had spent some time as an advisor with Seattle last season.

ABOUT THE BROWNS

1. Hue Jackson has hired Ken Zampese to be his quarterback coach. It's the same job he had for 13 years in Cincinnati, including two years when Jackson was offensive coordinator.

2. Zampese was relieved as the Bengals' O.C. early in the 2017 season. This is a guy who is used to Jackson.

3. Zampese is also Jackson's third quarterback coach in three years. He had Pep Hamilton (2016) and David Lee (2017). Hamilton left for Michigan. Lee did one or two press conferences in training camp and was never heard from again -- at least by the media.

4. Nor was Lee making much of an impact with quarterback DeShone Kizer. The rookie rarely mentioned Lee.

5. The new receivers coach is Adam Henry, who comes from the New York Giants. He had worked with Jackson in Oakland in 2012.

6. It's obvious Jackson still has a lot clout with ownership, which is allowing him to bring in more of his own guys. From his 2016 coaching staff, the only ones left are Al Saunders (now a special advisor), Bob Saunders and Ken Delgado.

7. I have no clue if all the changes are good or bad. I just want Jackson to get it right and have some stability. And he has to find a way to work better with his coaches on offense.

8. Jackson is still looking for an offensive coordinator. I wonder if he will allow the coordinator to actually call plays. Jackson loves doing it.

9. Not much said about defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and his staff. I favor keeping Williams and the 4-3 defense. He can make some tactical changes with Jabrill Peppers and others. But I saw some improvement in that side of the ball.