CLEVELAND, Ohio - The [Browns](https://www.cleveland.com/browns)’ infamous “rebuild” years – featuring a jaw-dropping 1-31 record over two seasons – remain one of the most controversial rebuilding strategies in NFL history.
Nearly a decade later, the question lingers: Was all that pain actually worth it?
On the latest Terry’s Talkin’ podcast, Terry Pluto addressed a poignant question from listener Pat Cleary about how the Haslams view those dark days in retrospect.
“Given almost a decade of hindsight, do they see the 0-16 and 1-15 years as the correct process that involved the necessary pain to obtain elite players like Myles Garrett, Nick Chubb, Denzel Ward and the chance to select the QB at No. 1? Or do they feel that the extreme rebuild was unnecessary?” Cleary asked.
Pluto’s response:
“Was it really worth it?” Pluto muses. “I think the answer is no. It got the one playoff victory.
“I don’t think they want to go through it again, or else you would not have seen them go out and get Kenny Pickett and sign Joe Flacco.”
That point is clear in the Browns’ recent moves.
Rather than enduring another painful season while Deshaun Watson’s future remains uncertain, the Browns have loaded up on quarterback options.
Pluto drew a contrast with the Guardians’ approach under Paul Dolan: “Paul Dolan said, ‘We are not setting out to lose 100 games. I am not inflicting that on my, my customers and my fans. I don’t want to see it. You’re not doing it.’ ”
This more measured approach – being competitive every year while still building for the future – stands in stark contrast to the Browns’ 2016-era strategy of bottoming out completely to accumulate draft capital.
The Browns’ ultimate move for a franchise quarterback came via the controversial Watson trade – essentially an admission that the rebuild had failed.
And Pluto said the Browns have invested big in their QB room with veterans Pickett and Flacco, and the drafting of Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
“They would say, ‘OK, quarterback is the most important position on the field and we don’t have a quarterback,’ ” Pluto said, channeling the front office’s current thinking. “So why not take two? Even though we have Flacco... Let’s just do it.”
This new approach – addressing quarterback uncertainty through volume rather than tanking for the right to draft one player – represents a fundamental shift in organizational philosophy.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
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_Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from Terry’s Talkin’, a weekly cleveland.com sports podcast. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions._