BEREA: Joe Thomas belongs on the Mount Rushmore of the expansion era Browns, but the offensive lineman with a strong case for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame still thought the new regime could trade him this offseason.
Thomas is glad he hasn’t been shipped away, despite the 47-97 record he has endured since the Browns drafted him third overall in 2007.
“I wouldn’t have been surprised if I woke any morning and the phone rang and said, ‘Hey, you got traded somewhere,’ just because of all the chatter that went on, the number of veterans that were on this team that got released, obviously the young movement that is going on right now in Berea,” Thomas said Wednesday after the fifth practice of organized team activities. “It wouldn’t have surprised me if I had been traded, but I’m happy that I didn’t. So it’s kind of a happy ending.”
Coach Hue Jackson and head of football operations Sashi Brown have stressed they have no plans to trade Thomas. But, of course, the nine-time Pro Bowl selection won’t be completely out of the woods until the NFL trade deadline passes Nov. 1. The previous front office nearly traded Thomas to the Denver Broncos just before last year’s deadline, but it didn’t pull the trigger.
Not long ago, Thomas publicly flirted with the idea of being dealt. After the Browns finished the 2015 season with a record of 3-13, leading to owner Jimmy Haslam firing coach Mike Pettine and General Manager Ray Farmer, Thomas let it be known he may not want to stick around for his sixth coaching change in Cleveland. Who could blame him if he wanted to play for a contender at age 31 instead of a rebuilding team?
But Thomas changed his tune after he met Jackson, talked to Brown and watched the organization hire experienced assistant coaches.
“[Jackson] brings a tremendous offensive mindset, a tremendous offensive playbook and I think he’s a great leader,” said Thomas, who took his routine veteran’s day off Wednesday and watched practice. “You put those things on a team and it’s only a matter of time before that team turns into a winner. Since I got here, my goal was always to turn the Browns into a winner consistently, and I think he’s just the man for that.”
Jackson’s scheme, which the Browns encountered the past two seasons while facing the Cincinnati Bengals twice a year, has also made staying put attractive to Thomas.
“I was always jealous of the guys that were in Cincinnati running Hue Jackson’s offense because it’s a very offensive line friendly offense, a lot of quick throws, a lot of easy fade balls, a lot of different formations to spread the defense out, confuse them, get them into really vanilla looks, some up-tempo stuff, smash-mouth football, he really wants to run the ball inside the tackles,” Thomas said.
“The thing that appeals on offense is we’re going to make the defense guard every blade of grass on the whole field because we’re going to be throwing it from sideline to sideline, we’re going to be running it inside, we’re going to be putting tackles, guards in different formations all over the field. I think that gives an offense a big advantage.”
This offseason, though, certainly hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine since Jackson was hired Jan. 13.
On the first day of free agency in March, the Browns let four key starters slip away. The group included three-time Pro Bowl center Alex Mack and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz. Thomas desperately wanted them back, so their departures were hard to swallow.
“It’s been a little bit of a tough transition losing Alex and Mitchell,” Thomas said. “I’d been here with Alex for seven years, so it’s tough when you lose a really good friend like that, a guy that you’ve been through a lot of hard times with and somebody who’s probably one of my best friends. It was tough seeing him go. He’s the best center in the NFL. I don’t begrudge him for leaving, but it was tough when he left.
“It was tough seeing Mitch go. Another good friend, a guy that I’d been around a long time, one of the top right tackles in football. So those are tough things, but in this business, that’s just the way it goes, and you’ve just got to roll with the punches, and you’ve got to live with it. If the player and the organization can’t come to an agreement, you’ve got to move on and work with whatever the team gives you.”
And for better or worse, Thomas is still happy to work with the Browns.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.