BOCA RATON, Fla.: Since the Browns let four starters slip away two weeks ago at the start of free agency, there has been rampant speculation about the team trading nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas amid a total rebuild of its roster.
But Browns head of football operations Sashi Brown insisted Monday dealing Thomas is not in the cards.
“That’s not our plan at all,” Brown said during the NFL owners meetings at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. “I know it’s been written about a lot. But that’s as simple as I can say it.”
But what if another team offers the Browns a first-round draft pick for Thomas?
“Again, our plan is not to trade Joe Thomas,” Brown replied. “He’ll be our left tackle.”
The previous regime nearly traded Thomas, 31, to the Denver Broncos last season but didn’t pull the trigger.
Last month, Thomas said Brown and coach Hue Jackson have told him they want him to be an important part of the team moving forward, but he wouldn’t be shocked if he were traded.
“Players are commodities, and if they feel like they’ve got a good value or a good opportunity to make the team better, they should get fired if they don’t make that decision,” Thomas said. “That’s your job when you’re in control of a football team is do everything they can to make the team better, whether that’s trade your 10-year guy or sign a guy that nobody’s ever heard of but you know he’s going to make the team better.”
Uncertain for Week 1
Brown conceded it’s “too early to tell at this point” whether two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Joe Haden will be ready for the 2016 regular-season opener after undergoing surgery on his left ankle last week.
“We don’t know enough about it, but we do know that Joe and we were disappointed obviously to hear that Joe was going to need surgery,” Brown said. “The first we heard about it was probably a week before last, maybe about 10 days ago.”
Brown revealed Haden was hurt during an offseason workout. He injured the same ankle Nov. 1 against the Arizona Cardinals. It was his last action of the year because he also suffered his second concussion of the season against the Cardinals and missed the final eight games. He wasn’t cleared from the NFL’s concussion protocol until Jan. 12.
“He had mentioned he had hurt his ankle in, I think, the Cardinals game initially, that he had some sprain of the ankle,” Brown said. “Whether it’s tied to that I don’t know. I know he did injure it in an offseason workout.”
Dr. Robert Anderson performed the surgery March 16 in Charlotte, N.C. Brown explained Haden didn’t suffer a broken bone but had damage to “cartilage and ligaments.”
The Browns hope Haden, 26, will return to football activities during training camp, but they’ll be preparing for life without him. The team was thin at corner even before it learned about Haden’s latest setback.
“We’re going to get him back at some point,” Jackson said. “In the meantime, there’s still guys on our team that we need to grow and get better, and that’s what our staff is here to do, and that’s what I’m really excited about, whoever’s there. We’re not going to worry about the people who are not there. We want them all back, but the people there, we’re going to coach them.”
Reflecting on losses
Brown insisted the franchise didn’t revoke its contract offer to right tackle Mitchell Schwartz in the hours leading up to the start of free agency on March 9.
NFL Network and ProFootballTalk.com reported the Browns pulled their offer to Schwartz, who signed a five-year, $33 million deal with the Kansas City Chiefs after negotiations between the Browns and his agent, Deryk Gilmore, fell through.
“No offer pulled,” Brown said.
Asked to elaborate on what happened during the talks involving Schwartz, Brown said, “I think enough has been said about it. I think a lot of players left their teams. I’ve seen a lot of their agents mouth off in the media, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Schwartz’s brother and fellow NFL offensive lineman Geoff seemed to allude to the Browns yanking their offer when he tweeted the following after Mitchell had reached an agreement with the Chiefs: “So proud of my brother, @MitchSchwartz72 on his deal with the @Chiefs! Went through some nonsense today, and ended up in a great spot.”
The Browns lost four starters at the onset of free agency when Schwartz, three-time Pro Bowl center Alex Mack, wide receiver Travis Benjamin and former Pro Bowl free safety Tashaun Gipson signed elsewhere.
“We had discussions with every player’s agent,” Brown said. “I’m not going to get into the back and forth.”
Brown lamented the organization failing to re-sign those players when former General Manager Ray Farmer was in charge. Brown was the chief contract negotiator at the time.
“We obviously can’t put ourselves in position where we’ve got four starters going in free agency,” Brown said. “ ... Once you get into in March in free agency, you’re effectively in free agency with your own guys.
“Ideally, we would have gotten these guys signed earlier. We just didn’t. As we look forward to the system we’ll build, where we’ll invest, how we’ll invest, I think all that will unfold moving forward.”
Mum on future
Outside linebacker Armonty Bryant faces an uncertain future with the Browns after receiving a four-game suspension three weeks ago from the NFL for violating its policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
The league could suspend Bryant additional games because he was indicted last month on two counts of felony drug possession stemming from a traffic stop on Christmas morning. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Not going to comment on Armonty,” Brown said when asked if the team has considered cutting Bryant. “Obviously he’s in the legal process now. He’s also in the process of meeting with the NFL as well in regards to his incident, so we’ll let that play out and determine. We’re not going to make any immediate decisions on Armonty. I think we’ve got to figure out what those things look like and let those play out.”
Bryant, 25, is eligible to participate in the Browns’ offseason conditioning program, which will begin April 4.
Asked whether he expects Bryant to report to the team then, Brown said, “Yes, yeah. Right now, we’re working through a few things that I can’t comment on, but yeah.”