Sashi Brown was asked Thursday if he's OK if some around the NFL consider him to be a "wheeler and dealer."
"I am OK with it," the Browns executive vice president of football operations said with a laugh after Thursday's busy first round.
In the last eight days, the Browns turned the No. 2 overall pick into two additional third-round picks, a fourth-round pick, a 2017 first-round pick, a 2017 second-rounder, a 2018 second-rounder and the top-selected wide receiver in the draft.
That's why Brown, working his first draft in such a position of decisionmaking power, was OK with whatever kind of labels were placed on him after weeks of working the phones.
"It is rare that you are able to pick up the first wide receiver on your board and acquire the number of additional picks that we had," Brown said. "We are really pleased with our ability to execute that plan."
With 11 picks remaining in the 2016 draft, starting tonight with the first pick in the second round and three in the third, Brown made it clear the Browns are very much open for business over the next 48 hours. Even before he met with reporters late in the first round to discuss Cleveland's selection of Baylor wide receiver Corey Coleman, Brown said he'd fielded interest in the No. 32 pick.
"We are open to making the best possible decisions for the Browns and whatever positions us well enough to win," Brown said. "Every decision we are making here is in line with our plan, which is designed to win. We know we have players that we need to add to this roster. If it so happens that we are able to add some picks and still add a player that we like, we will do that. It depends on what is presented to us."
Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta said the Browns were in talks with the Titans and other teams throughout the day Thursday about the possibility of trading out of the No. 8 spot -- the place they occupied after a blockbuster trade of the No. 2 pick with the Eagles one week earlier. He said the Browns may have reacted differently if the first seven picks in the draft went differently, but the way the board fell presented Cleveland with "an opportunity."
And those opportunities could certainly arise again as the Browns go through the next two days of the draft with a vision that goes well beyond 2016.
"The big thing for us was just trying to figure out how to get not only the players that we really wanted but also have as much draft capital as possible because we are trying to build a great organization over a long period of time here," DePodesta said. "Tonight, hopefully, is a perfect example of that. We got a combination of the player that we really wanted that we thought was a great fit for us now, and yet we also have a few more bites at the apple not only tomorrow but also next year."
