Little rattles Hue Jackson more than when he hears about how his team is "rebuilding."
Yes, he's well aware of the circumstances, but the Browns coach prefers to label what he and a reorganized front office face entering his first year in Cleveland with some different verbiage.
"I think rebuilding says that you're totally junking everything and starting over. That's not what we're doing," Jackson said earlier this week at the NFL's owners meetings in Boca Raton, Florida. "I think we're rebooting. I think we're recharging."
Semantics aside, Jackson's reasons begin with the players he's inherited from a team that struggled on both sides of the ball in 2015 and finished with a 3-13 record. Still, Jackson sees cornerstones to build around, a sentiment that was exemplified when he diffused trade rumors surrounding nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas.
The confidence Jackson has in himself and his coaching staff leads him to believe they'll get the most out of players who have already proved they can play at a high level.
"There are still Joe Thomases on our football team, there are Danny Sheltons on our football team, there's Joe Hadens on our football team," Jackson said. "Those guys aren't rebuilding because they've played and they've had success so I don't see it that way. I think if we can get the right pieces on our team, you never know what this team could be.
"I know the expectation is low and deservedly so. I get it but at the same time I don't think anybody in our organization is built that way. We like to win and we want to do everything we can."
Through the years with new Browns QB Robert Griffin III.
Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, in a meeting with local reporters at the owners meetings, reiterated the patience they plan to display with Jackson and his coaching staff and the reorganized football operations department, led by Sashi Brown. On multiple occasions, Jimmy Haslam stressed how happy he was with how the group was working together, reiterated his commitment to provide a "long-term winner to Cleveland" and explained how getting to that point may require some patience.
Jackson just isn't wired to be patient, especially when it pertains to winning.
"I feel very comfortable that Jimmy and Dee understand and recognize what we're trying to accomplish because they're as big of supporters of what we're doing as anybody and they're very realistic in what we're doing and they're very realistic about what their team is today," Jackson said. "I will say this: I'm not built like everybody. I'm as competitive as anybody in the National Football League and so are they. So is Sashi and Andrew (Berry) and Paul (DePodesta). We want to get this right. We also want to get it right as fast as we can and it has nothing to do with Jimmy and Dee, per say. It's just our own competitiveness.
"I like to win. I just came from a place where we win. I'm not going to ever go backward on that. I understand the demands of the job and what the job entails but I feel very comfortable I have tremendous support starting with Jimmy and Dee down about what we're trying to do."
Asked to lay out what he liked about his current roster, Jackson started with running backs Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson and touched on each position group, identifying players he believe can thrive under the leadership of his coaching staff. He acknowledged the loss of the team's six free agents, a trend he and Brown want to reverse in the coming years together, but said the "cupboard is not bare."
"What we have to do," Jackson said, "is continue to add more pieces to our football team as we see our vision and we see our future to where we want to go."