It all started when Carmen Policy took his leave from San Francisco. It seemed as if everyone wanted to follow, and many did. All in all the Browns have acquired 7 players with 49ers last season, and many more front office staff. The long list includes of course Carmen Policy as well as Dwight Clark, Joe Collins, there are others two, but their roles are less crucial. The players include: Ty Detmer, Marqueze Pope, Terry Kirby, Antonio Langham, James Williams, Steve Gordon, Irv Smith, and Gary Brown.
With all this movement it almost seems as if the West and East Coasts have flip flopped. The Browns are using this method of acquiring players, because they are impressed with how the 49ers are run. How a practice is not just a practice, but actually taken seriously with 110% effort. They like the structure that the 49ers have developed within their team. Thus they are trying to mimic a similar attitude in Cleveland.
The NFL has already enforced a rule to prevent the Browns from going after any other front office staff of the 49ers. This rule was in place when Jon Collins left, but the 49ers let him go so he could be with his family in Cleveland. It is unlikely that they will be so generous with the rest of their staff. The Browns are off to a good start with this method. However taking players that the 49ers are willing to give up will only get a team so far, the question will be how successful these player can be outside of San Francisco.
The 49ers had to combat these losses. The biggest ones were in the front office, and the 9ers more then took care of that problem. They brought back Bill Walsh, promoted John McVay and hired Terry Donahue. It's also possible that the 49ers may bring Gene Washington a former 49er player and current NFL executive back to the team. However this rumour has died down recently. The 49ers were actually happy to unload some of the players they lost. Antonio Langham and Irv Smith were two of those. Langham played terribly last season, and though Irv Smith was a good player, he is to pricey for the 9ers and Chad Fan will take his place. Marqueze Pope wasn't much of a loss either considering he has missed most of the last two seasons due to injury. As a result the 49ers will have a little less depth, but should make up for it in the draft, which they feel is the way to build for the future.
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