The Browns have been rebuilding since the moment they were rebuilt in Cleveland, but owner Jimmy Haslam thinks this time, for real, the winning is about to begin.
Via Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal, Haslam thinks things are going to be much better this season (and they can’t really get worse after going 1-15).
“The difference between this year and last year in terms of feeling in the building is noticeably different,” Haslam said. “We were able to obviously to bring in some top-flight talent during the offseason, have what we believe to be a very successful draft and I’m highly confident that this will be the year when the Browns begin to turn around and perform at the level they should.
“I’m highly, highly confident we got the right guy to lead the ship, and that’s head coach Hue Jackson.”
The Browns sticking by Jackson is admirable, since they stuck him with a roster largely devoid of professional players last season. But Haslam said he’s been impressed with the way his coach has kept things positive, and Jackson didn’t have any interest in dwelling in the past.
“I don’t even want to talk about last year, what [foundation] was set, because a lot of stuff wasn’t set,” Jackson said. “I do feel better about [this year]. Our draft shows that we’ve put more quality talent on our team. I think it showed last year that our guys understood our process, and they worked hard. We just couldn’t seem to win because of it.
“Now, hopefully we have enough talent to where we can finish games and finish games better and finishing hopefully leads to winning. But at the end of day, all of this is about winning. It’s not about anything else. We need to see tangible wins in order for this organization to be moving forward.”
At least they have the confidence of ownership, because it’s likely to be a process that extends beyond the coming season.