Browns Rumors: 49ers' Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Hired as VP of Football Operations

The Cleveland Browns are reportedly set to hire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their new vice president of football operations, according to ESPN's Seth Walder.

Adofo-Mensah previously served as the San Francisco 49ers' director of football research and development since 2018. Before that, he was the Niners' manager of football research and development from 2013-18.

Per Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot, Adofo-Mensah will essentially serve as the assistant general manager under Browns GM Andrew Berry.

Like Berry, who attended Harvard, Adofo-Mensah is an Ivy Leaguer. He graduated from Princeton with a Bachelor's degree in economics in 2003 and later earned his Master's in economics from Stanford.

The Browns hired Berry as their GM in January after parting ways with John Dorsey. Berry was the Philadelphia Eagles' vice president of football operations last season, and he became the youngest GM in NFL history when the Browns hired him, as he was 32 at the time.

Adofo-Mensah will join forces with Berry in an effort to turn around a Browns franchise that hasn't reached the playoffs since 2002.

Cleveland seemed to be turning things around in 2018 when it went 7-8-1 thanks largely to the play of quarterback Baker Mayfield, who finished second in the Offensive Rookie of the Year voting that season.

The Browns entered 2019 with big expectations, but they faltered to the tune of a 6-10 record. Mayfield took a significant step back, leading to the Browns firing head coach Freddie Kitchens and replacing him with Kevin Stefanski.

With the NFL expanding the postseason to seven playoff teams per conference, 2020 may present the Browns with their best opportunity in years to end the playoff drought.