Get ready Browns fans: For better or worse, this is Jimmy Haslam’s team

Ray Farmer was introduced on Tuesday afternoon as the new general manager of the Cleveland Browns. Out immediately is Michael Lombardi, with CEO Joe Banner phasing out in the coming months.

Owner Jimmy Haslam said that the decision was made to streamline the organization. Candidly, what Haslam did was remove the top two blocks from the organizational chart and have the football operation report directly to him as well as the business side.

“Several weeks ago, Joe Banner and I began having discussions about the structure and organization of the Cleveland Browns,” Haslam said to a packed house in Berea. “Over the last several days have come to the conclusion that Joe has done a superb job putting the right people in place for the Browns. Joe and I after lots of conversation, mutually agreed that it was best for the organization if we streamlined things.”

Alec Scheiner will run the business side of the organization, Ray Farmer will handle the football side with Mike Pettine coaching the team. Haslam said that for the sake of accountability all three will report directly to him. Farmer will have control over the 53-man roster, with Pettine controlling who is active on Sunday.

“I felt like the previous setup was a little bit cumbersome,” said Haslam. “I think the way we’re organized now is much more streamlined, will be much more efficient, much more clear in terms of who’s in charge of what.”

Scheiner and Farmer were both brought in last year, and both are highly regarded in the football community. Having had both in the building for the past year should make for a comfortable transition.

What will likely be a big change, is how involved Jimmy Haslam will be in the day to day operations of the team.

“I view my job as this- one to provide the proper resources, two to put the right people in the right place, three to hold them accountable and then four, to do everything I can to help them be successful.”

When asked directly if having those in charge reporting to him instead of a CEO means an increased presence in Berea, Haslam said, “Yeah, I think you’ll see us in Berea and we look forward to working with what we believe are three extremely talented individuals.”

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So the official story is that after the Browns went through a long coaching search, Jimmy Haslam and Joe Banner sat down and decided that the organization needed to be streamlined, which meant Banner was green lighting the removal of his own position.

Call me skeptical. However the decision was made really doesn’t even matter though. Going forward Jimmy Haslam’s fingerprints will appear all over this team.

The question is whether or not that’s a good thing. Even without a track record of running a draft, I’d take Ray Farmer over Michael Lombardi making those decisions. That’s how impressed I am with Lombardi. The one thing you have to give Banner credit for is bringing in a fresh group of young and impressive people to work for the team. Whether it is Alec Scheiner, Ray Farmer, Brent Stehlik or Zak Gilbert, the Browns have made significant improvements in the front office. Now they need to make those improvements on the field and the win column.

The best possible scenario is that Ray Farmer makes fantastic football decisions and Jimmy Haslam is able to sit back and say he made a great ownership move to get rid of Lombardi and Banner. On the other end of the spectrum, Cleveland could be looking at the next Jerry Jones.