The Cleveland Browns will hit the field for their first practice in Berea today as we are now less than one week away from the preseason opener against Green Bay. Mike Vrabel has been a big topic of conversation ever since the Browns announced that they were hiring him as a consultant for this season.

Both fans and media have widely applauded the move. The former Buckeye returning home seems mutually beneficial to both Vrabel and Cleveland. His races in practice with Jameis Winston have been fun as well.

He is highly respected as one of the best defensive minds in professional football. The former NFL Head Coach of the Year winner has also earned a reputation for building tough teams motivated to play their best.

Vrabel appears to fit very well within his new hybrid role. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry have each talked about the value he brings to them.

Vrabel has also made it known that he is excited about the opportunity to learn from the Browns and wants to take those lessons with him in his next opportunity as a head coach.

Vrabel is certain to gain interest from teams during the next hiring cycle, and if the Browns live up to expectations this year, then I expect him to be a hot commodity. A scenario that the Browns have surely already thought through is the possibility of Vrabel having an interest in hiring talent from within the coaching staff and/or front office at his next stop.

We will never know if there were any stipulations put into any contract signed by Vrabel but the Browns, while viewed as guarded, have earned the reputation of doing right by their players, coaches, and staff in recent years.

While no team wants to have talent walk out the door, having a growth mindset at the root of your culture means that you want those within it to be promoted wherever possible.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some possible scenarios:

A very popular hiring trend is to pair a newly hired head coach with a general manager with someone the coach has a good working relationship. It just so happens that Cleveland has two up-and-coming executives as candidates Glenn Cook and Catherine Raiche.

Both are considered future general managers and would earn the Browns additional comp picks if hired. Cook is the Assistant GM and VP of Player Personnel, and Raiche holds the title of Assistant GM and VP of Football Operations.

On the coaching staff side, Vrabel does have a rolodex of coaches that he is familiar with prior to joining the Browns. With that said some young coaches on Stefanski’s staff may be unknowingly auditioning for promotion to Vrabel’s next.

Connecting the obvious would be new tight ends coach Tommy Rees. One of Vrabel’s assigned roles is to assist the young coach with that particular room.

Rees has already coordinated an offense at the highest level of college and is expected to be a future offensive coordinator in the league. As it stands, Rees could be hired away as a quarterback coach, although I doubt that Cleveland wouldn’t just give him the same title to prevent it.

On the defensive side of the ball, a name to watch would be Brandon Lynch, the current cornerbacks coach. Lynch has a dynamic personality and is very well-liked by his players.

He probably doesn’t receive enough credit for the success that the room has had under his tenure. Berry tends to get more credit for the drafting of the talent than Lynch has received for developing it.

Pairing Lynch with Vrabel as his defensive coordinator would make sense too, as Vrabel could take a lot of pressure off a first-time coordinator.

In summary, hiring Vrabel was a calculation determined by Cleveland to have more upside for them than any future loss of talent as a natural ripple effect.