Haslam mostly hedges

So how do you sell the media on your perennially underachieving National Football League team as a brand new season unfurls within the next couple of months?

Well, if you're James Arthur Haslam III and it's the 13th time the billionaire owner of the Browns steps forward from a public relations standpoint to take another stab at predicting the future, you hedge ever so slightly.

For the major part of his 12-season stewardship of his often-times dysfunctional franchise, this beginning-of-training camp exercise with the media arrives following yet another dismal and disappointing campaign. 

This time, though, it appears as if the Southern gentleman is trying his best to pump the brakes a bit,  temper the growing optimism that this edition of the Browns actually has the pedigree of a more than just a competitive team.

This roster is loaded in all three phases of the game courtesy of General Manager Andrew Berry, who upgraded two coordinator positions in the process. It produced a league-high $303 million in contracts for the current 90-man roster. 

This is the time during the NFL year when optimism reigns supreme. When all 32 teams, realistically or otherwise, weave the next Super Bowl into conversations. Having been burned numerous times in his tenure as the boss, Haslam for the most part appears to take a much more realistic look at 2023.

It's year four of the Berry/Kevin Stefanski regime, the last two seasons resulting in unforeseen circumstances that resulted in achingly frustrating campaigns that were badly mishandled. I won't get into the specifics. Just know they could have been avoided.

Haslam declined to make outright predictions while heaping praise on his front office of Berry, Stefanski and Chief Strategy Officer (whatever that means) Paul DePodesta. "Do I think (they) have done a great job?" he said. "We (presumably Haslam and his wife, Dee), do. Are we excited about them this year? Yes."

Now what else did anyone expect him to say? Gotta please the constituency, ya know. Then he qualified his stance. "To say now or never I think would be grossly unfair," he said, "but we're excited about this year."

But one (yep, me) got the impression this season had better wind up in the playoff column or else changes will be made. Speculation at the end of last season led to the notion Stefanski's seat had become quite hot.

Not so, the owner said. "It was an easy decision," he revealed. "There was never a thought to not bringing Kevin back. I think he's a good coach. (Really? He's 15-19 the last two seasons.) We like him." Wondering whether that relationship will remain the same if the Browns fail for the third straight season to qualify for the postseason.

Haslam's optimism is undoubtedly based on Deshaun Watson having the offensive huddle for the entire season after sitting out the first 11 games last season. Early camp indications are Watson once again looks like the Pro Bowl quarterback who compiled sensational numbers with the Houston Texans a few years ago.

As for the Browns and Super Bowl appearing in the same conversation, Haslam took his foot off the brakes just long enough to pronounce himself "highly confident" Stefanski, along with new coordinators (Jim Schwartz for the defense and Bubba Ventrone for special teams) is the right man to take the Browns to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas next Feb, 11.

"I really do (believe that)," he added. "I don't want to be negative toward (the new coordinators') predecessors, but I think Jim Schwartz and Bubba Ventrone are going to be big for us." That's sort of being negative toward Joe Woods and Mike Priefer. But they deserve it.

Optimistic talk like that, though, is going to reverberate around Browns Nation for at least the minefield that is the first four games of the regular season, the results of which will determine whether Haslam's opening remarks to the media before the 2024 training camp commences were spot on.

Yep, he went a little too far. You think Stefanski might want to give some thought to updating his résumé just in case?