Tony Grossi, ESPN Cleveland 8y

Browns' theme for 2016 now clear: Collect draft picks, not wins

Editor's note: Tony Grossi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN 850 WKNR.

Bombs away: I thought the week in Tampa could be an early turning point for the Browns’ first season under coach Hue Jackson.

It was, but for a reason I did not anticipate.

I thought a good two days of practice followed by a good game against the Buccaneers could accelerate the growth of Jackson’s team.

Instead, a good two days of practice was incinerated by an utterly awful performance in the game.

It was a humiliating comeuppance. The lesson was a team as middling as the Bucs could fairly sleepwalk through two practices and then dispense of the Browns in the game like a mosquito on a windshield.

Smack!

Buenas noches.

I think the Browns New Order took note of the ease at which the Bucs handled them in the first half and decided to commit 100 percent to a plan that goes beyond rebuilding. It is now a detonation -- to be followed by a rebuilding, which is not yet really underway.

Somebody must have said, “Just think what the Steelers, Bengals and Ravens might do to us when they gameplan us and practice hard.”

And then somebody else said, “It’s going to get ugly before it gets better, right?”

And then somebody else said, “I’ve got an idea. Let’s get more draft picks.”

The purge continues: No doubt the Browns tried to trade 30-year-old linebacker Paul Kruger, but his $13.5 million in salaries over the final two years of his contract found no takers. So they “terminated” his contract.

(The Browns were able to trade Barkevious Mingo to New England for a fifth-round pick on Thursday because he is five years younger and makes only about $2.63 million in the last year of his contract.)

To be sure, Kruger’s production did not measure up to his contract. And he had given off signs to team personnel that he was losing interest -- fast -- in the Hue Jackson program. Kruger’s play in Tampa was so bad, it came off as a siren call to “get me outta here.”

Which brings us to Andy Lee.

The three-time Pro Bowl punter is as much of a weapon at age 34 as he was five years ago with the San Francisco 49ers. Last year, Lee set the Browns single-season records for gross average (46.7 yards) and net average (40.1). He averaged an incredible 52.6 yards on 16 punts in three preseason games.

But Lee lollygagged during a punt return for a touchdown in Tampa, and Jackson was in his grill when he reached the sideline.

Coincidentally, or not, the NFC Champion Carolina Panthers were in need of a punter after losing theirs to injury over the weekend. The Panthers offered their 2018 fourth-round pick and an unproven punter for Lee.

Considering the Browns gave up only a seventh-round pick to acquire Lee a year earlier, the Browns’ analytics department roared with laughter before composing itself and accepting the deal.

(Wow, they must have thought, that Carolina GM Dave Gettleman is such a dinosaur, he probably doesn’t even know how to get on the Internet and dial up Pro Football Focus. By the way, those GMs reaching for Super Bowls are so easy to trade with.)

So the New Browns Order was able to teach a lesson -- “No lollygagging, even by a Pro Bowler” -- and pad its draft pick war chest, too.

In four months, the Browns have stockpiled the following picks for future drafts:

In 2017, they have Philadelphia’s first, Tennessee’s second and New England’s fifth.

In 2018, they have Philadelphia’s second and Carolina’s fourth.

And they might not be done.

What to watch: The theme of the 2016 season has been clearly established: Do whatever is necessary to collect assets for the future.

The elephant in the room is Hall of Fame-bound left tackle Joe Thomas.

What happens if the Browns are, say, 1-7 at the Nov. 1 trade deadline? Do you really think the New Browns Order would pass on a trade for Thomas as the Alec Scheiner-Ray Farmer front office did in 2015?

I don’t believe Jackson realized the totality of the plan when he accepted the Browns’ job. No coach would sign up for this without having absolute control of the roster. Jackson doesn’t have that.

All of a sudden, he is walking in the shoes of Rob Chudzinski, circa 2013. Ask defensive coordinator Ray Horton, who was here then, how that turned out.

“Don’t worry, it’s a long-range plan.”

Months later: “On second thought, you’re fired.”

Jackson’s quarterback expertise has netted Robert Griffin and Cody Kessler.

So far, the struggles of Jared Goff and the rib injury to Carson Wentz have given Jackson some breathing room on Griffin.

But what about that Dak Prescott-to-Kessler comparison? If Jackson is a quarterback whisperer, he’s going to be hoarse by October.

I have always said a rebuilding job does not begin until the franchise quarterback is found.

And that surely hasn’t happened yet.

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