BEREA, Ohio -- Back in the summer, with training camp just heating up, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam laid out his expectations for the coming season.
"None of us are exactly sure what'll happen this year," Haslam said on that Saturday in July. "I know we'll be a better team. So I think 2018 -- and I'm not hedging my bets -- 2018, 2019 you should see a substantially better football team."
It seemed reasonable at the time -- a better team than the one that finished 1-15 in 2016, but one that was not quite ready to compete.