Somewhere in the Browns’ practice facility must be a brown needle and a thin piece of orange thread. For the last eight months, Jimmy Haslam has carefully been rolling the string between his thumb and forefinger, trying to ever so gently thread it through that narrow hole separating hope from sensibility.
Deep in his soul, as he stands on the practice field most days with his hands on his hips, I believe Haslam knows this team isn’t ready to challenge. But there are tickets to sell and a belief to cultivate within a weary fan base that is tired of him overpromising and underdelivering. He oscillates between the yin of another losing season and the yang of a fight promoter trying to sell out the arena. So it was again last week when Haslam was asked a question about high expectations for this season.
“I don’t know about high expectations,” he said. “Let’s say improved expectations.”
I’ve certainly been hard on Haslam at times over the years, but let’s be reasonable. I believe he tries his best to be transparent as much as possible — sometimes to his own detriment, such as calling the Deshaun Watson trade a swing and a miss. It was absolutely accurate and the perfect description, but it makes things awkward when the biggest strikeout in NFL history is back under center trying to swing the bat again this summer.
He is also the only owner in town who regularly meets with the media. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert hasn’t held an open press availability since his stroke in 2019, and Guardians owner Paul Dolan would rather pay Tarik Skubal than answer questions from reporters.
That leaves the Haslams, who at least twice every calendar year meet with reporters and account for the mess they’ve made. They’re trying earnestly to clean it up and I’ll give them credit for the progress they’ve made the last couple of years.
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When Watson was carted off the field three years ago, everything changed. It was already apparent even before the Achilles tear that Watson was never going to be the quarterback the Browns envisioned when they traded for him and gave him that contract, but the career-altering injury demanded an immediate pivot within the organization. Whatever flimsy contention window they had created with players like Nick Chubb, Denzel Ward, Myles Garrett and Joel Bitonio had closed. It was time to start over.
Whether it’s the Haslams, general manager Andrew Berry or a combination of all of them, there has been a bit of a culture shift at work ever since.
Trading away Myles Garrett was a crucial step. Garrett is a phenomenal talent. He is 1 of 1 as a defensive end, and I won’t be shocked if he makes another run at his own sack record this year in Los Angeles. With a head coach like Sean McVay and a quarterback like Matthew Stafford, Garrett’s role in the Rams’ locker room may be different than what the Browns desperately needed him to provide. I wrote when they extended him last year that they should’ve instead traded him. Part of the reasoning for it was the poor locker room culture he helped foster.
After the Browns selected Spencer Fano in the first round this year, one player who knows Garrett well joked with me that Fano would have to survive Garrett in training camp, that Garrett would take great delight in trying to crush his confidence every day. Juxtapose that against the clips of Jared Verse working with Fano on his footwork and hand technique earlier this week after practice.
“That’s really cool,” coach Todd Monken said of Verse’s impromptu tutoring session. “I walked up to Jared and said, ‘Man, we’re so lucky you’re a Brown.’”
The Browns need more leaders like Verse and Ward and Carson Schwesinger, truly excellent players who meet their obligations on and off the field every day.
But this team isn’t there yet. They’re one more draft class, and specifically a quarterback, away from legitimate conversations about competing for a wild card in the AFC. It’s hard to understand how Berry kept his job after burning down the building with the Watson fiasco, but I also give him credit for appearing to find so many useful fixtures in these last two drafts.
Mason Graham has looked unblockable at times in this camp. Schwesinger and Harold Fannin are on All-Pro trajectories, and Denzel Boston has shown some strong traits in camp. Fano should be the anchor of the offensive line for the next decade. Nearly all of them receive glowing reviews for their character and behavior on and off the field.
Watson mercifully comes off their books after this season (although they’ll still have another $80 million in dead cap hits to sort through) and then maybe this organization can start to breathe again.
Of course, nothing matters until they solve quarterback. I have no faith in any of these quarterbacks being the long-term solution, and Mike Sando’s quarterback tiers piece didn’t make things feel any better. Executives, coaches and coordinators from around the league ranked Watson 31st and Shedeur Sanders dead last at 35th. Given Watson’s struggles over the years and the way Sanders performed last season, there’s really no argument either should be much higher. That makes it difficult for any reasonable person to find much optimism for this season.
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I thought Haslam had it exactly right when he said prior to last season it would take years to dig out of the Watson contract. I was confused by the pivot when they fired Kevin Stefanski and suddenly insisted this team should’ve won more than five games last season. I disagree. They were fortunate to even get to five.
Now that he has a new coach in place, Haslam seems to be reverting back to the more realistic plot point of where this team truly resides this summer. He doesn’t have high expectations, he has “improved” expectations. He called out the Vegas over/under line of 5 1/2 wins this year and advised fans to take the over.
That would be 6-11 and likely still within reach of a franchise quarterback in the first round of next year’s draft. The worst-case scenario is winning one or two meaningless games near the end of the season, as they did last year, to take themselves out of range of upgrading the most important position on the field.
For now, Haslam is trying feverishly to thread a delicate needle. It would be a pleasant change if the Browns can successfully execute it. For most of his ownership tenure, he just keeps poking himself in the thumb.