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CLEVELAND — **Sashi Brown took ownership Monday of a winless start that has seen a young Browns team stumble through the first half of the 2017 season.
Brown, Cleveland's executive vice president of football operations, met with the news media as the team returned from its bye week to look back on a frustrating past two months and ahead to what's hopefully a better and brighter future.
"It's my responsibility to deliver a roster here that's talented enough to win week in, week out and we haven't done that yet," Brown said. "We're confident as we move forward that we'll be able to add. You guys know how well we're positioned to requisite talent to bring this roster back to being a contender for this division and beyond, but we're not there yet and so we have to own that and we will."
In a disappointing 0-8 start, the Browns have struggled with turnovers, penalties, instability at quarterback and depth at certain positions, including a wide receivers room that has been disappointing thus far. This all comes after a 1-15 campaign in 2016 but a promising offseason that saw the team fortify its offensive line in free agency, add three first-round picks this past spring and accumulate assets for next year.
Brown stressed the reshaping of Cleveland's roster -- which started when Brown, head coach Hue Jackson, chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta and vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry joined forces two winters ago -- is an ongoing process, but no excuse for a 1-23 mark over the past season-and-a-half.
"I want to arm our coaches and our personnel staff wants to arm our coaches with as much talent as we possibly can have to go out there and win every Sunday," he said.
Brown also acknowledged missteps — including an attempted trade for Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron last week — and the Browns' longstanding inability to establish an answer at the position while other clubs have enjoyed success with young signal-callers.
"I don't shy away from missed opportunities at all. That's going to be a piece of it. There are a lot of non-quarterbacks out there, frankly, that are playing well right now, too, that we would love to have on our team," Brown said, "but we're not going to get everyone right. We haven't, and we won't moving forward. We'll get enough of them right and we will solve the quarterback position here."
Brown, who has spoken of assembling a core nucleus of young talent, reiterated the front office's goal is to build a sustainable winner in Cleveland.
And while that has yet to manifest itself on the field, he expressed optimism.
"If we're racing to try to get as good as we can as fast as we can, than we would have a different strategy. That isn't ours. We want to be sustainable. We are going to be good and when we get there, we will be good for a long time," Brown said, pointing to a few of Cleveland's bright spots, such as a young and promising defense.
"We have some more pieces we have to drop in here to get the roster to where it needs to be, but there are signs of progress that people can be excited about and look forward to. At the same time, we are disappointed in the results and we own those."
