New Browns wide receiver Kenny Britt hopes the best season of his eight-year career is just the start of more good things to come.
"I hope the future is brighter," Britt said Friday, "and it's going to be here in Cleveland. I know that for a fact."
Britt, the former Los Angeles Ram who inked a four-year deal last week with the Browns, shrugged off a career-best campaign that saw him catch 68 passes for 1,002 yards and five touchdowns with the Rams. Now, he said, isn't the time rest on past laurels under head coach Hue Jackson and a front office that also added key pieces to Cleveland's offense in right guard Kevin Zeitler and center JC Tretter.
"I wanted to be a part of this," he said. "I wanted to be a part of the rebuilding and what they have going on."
Britt's signing comes as the Browns part ways with leading receiver Terrelle Pryor, who joined the Redskins roughly around the same time Britt met with reporters on a conference call. Britt made it clear he's not here to be anyone's replacement.
"I'm not filling in anybody's shoes. I have my own shoes to fill to tell you the truth and walk around in," he said.
"Whatever he did here was on him, and good luck to his career and his success that he had here, but right now, it is moving forward. We have the players that we have here and who is going to be on the sideline that we are lining up with each other. That is our main focus is us and who is going to be here."
Britt, 28, gives Cleveland a proven playmaker on the perimeter, having totaled 152 receptions for 2,431 and eight touchdowns the past three seasons with the Rams. He also adds a veteran presence to a room that includes second-year players Corey Coleman, Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins, Jordan Payton, Rannell Hall. and Mario Alford. Asked of that role, Britt said he'll do "whatever they need me to be, to tell you the truth."
"If it's a leader, if it's a follower," he continued, "regardless of what position they put me in and what position or what role they ask me to play or come into is what I'm going to do."
That's because Britt has played a bevy of roles throughout his career. He's hoping his best days are ahead of him with the help of Jackson and the coaching staff.
"I'm going to work 10 times harder than I ever have," he said.
"Throughout my career, I have just been learning the bumps and the hills that you've got to get over, and I think I have passed through those throughout my career and my age right now."
