Vikings Executive George Paton No Longer in the Running for Browns' GM Vacancy
By Sean Facey
The Cleveland Browns, in search of their next general manager to replace John Dorsey, lost themselves a candidate on Friday afternoon.
After two interviews with the team, Minnesota Vikings assistant general manager George Paton has pulled himself out of the running for the job.
#Vikings George Paton took himself out the running for #Browns GM, source tells clevelanddotcom
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) January 24, 2020
Paton would have also formed a nice duo with former Vikings coordinator and new Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski. He's experienced too, having been in Minnesota's front office for 13 years, and could help provide some stability to a Browns organization that has been rather dysfunctional over the past decade.
However, he didn't back out due to a lack of interest in the vacancy. Instead, Paton felt that the job was Eagles executive Andrew Berry's to lose, and thus decided to withdraw his name from consideration.
Updated w/ some background on why #Vikings George Paton pulled himself out of running for #Browns GM today. Almost didn't interview b/c he felt it was Berry's job. Had questions about power structure, division of labor, etc. https://t.co/QdLtbcAIQC
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) January 24, 2020
With him out of the running, the Browns now have to turn their eyes towards other candidates, and Berry is reportedly leading the pack of remaining candidates, at least enough so that Paton backed out.