Catherine Raiche Officially Assistant GM and VP of Football Ops in Cleveland
The Cleveland Browns made the changes to their organization's football operations staff official on Thursday and the flow chart offers some clarification as to why Catherine Raiche was able to leave the Eagles for what seemed like a lateral position.
Raiche, the former Vice President of Football Operations in Philadelphia, was reported to be leaving for the Assistant GM title in Cleveland under Andrew Berry, also a former VP of Football Ops with the Eagles before getting the Browns GM job.
Raiche was hired by the Eagles in 2019 as a Football Operations Coordinator and essentially shadowed Berry to take over as the VP of Football Ops in Philadelphia because the organization was aware that Berry was on the fast track to getting a GM job.
Where the Eagles may have miscalculated was failing to recognize Raiche's loyalty to Berry, her immediate superior while in Philadelphia, and when the Browns GM came calling, Raiche was receptive to relocating to Cleveland.
From a practical perspective, however, moving without a promotion can be problematic unless you're out of a contract, but in the case of Raiche, her title in Cleveland is VP of Football Ops and Assistant GM so the upgrade on paper is there.
By job description, Raiche oversaw all areas of football ops and player personnel with the Eagles, including pro and college scouting, contract management, player/staff development, and football research.
In the wake of massive losses in their front office, the Eagles handed out the assistant GM title for the first time to two members of the football operations staff: Jon Ferarri and Alec Halaby. Ferrari's former title was VP of Football Ops and Compliance and Halabay's was VP of Football Ops and Strategy.
On the flow chart, Raiche was actually above Ferrari and Halaby so the tweak to assistant GM, in theory at least, could have kept her in Philadelphia but the organization was aware that Raiche wanted to work with Berry again and wasn't keen on playing hardball anyway.
Unlike the Eagles, Berry split his assistant GM job between a football ops expert in Raiche and a scouting staff member in Glenn Cook, who will be the Browns' assistant GM and VP of Player Personnel.
Raiche's role with the Browns was described as "helping to manage the day-to-day operations of the team and contribute to all strategic roster decisions across the player personnel and football ops verticals."
Interestingly, if the Eagles' former VP of Player Personnel Andy Weidl did not get the Pittsburgh assistant GM job under Omark Khan, he would have returned to Philadelphia in the same role and wouldn't have been in consideration for assistant GM per a team source with knowledge of the situation.
Once it was clear Raiche was leaving for the Browns, the wheels were put in motion to elevate Ferrari and Halaby.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
