Feisty Sashi Brown hits out on Mitchell Schwartz departure

Cleveland Browns vice president of football operations Sashi Brown had something to say about the perception surrounding the departure of Mitchell Schwartz.

Cleveland Browns vice president of football operations Sashi Brown may have shown his first true emotional reaction on Monday when discussing the departure of right tackle Mitchell Schwartz in free agency.

There were multiple reports in the hours after Schwartz signed with the Kansas City Chiefs that the Browns had pulled their offer off the table, leaving Schwartz no alternative but to leave.

Well, Brown put it in no uncertain terms that was the case.

“I’ve seen a lot of their agents mouth off in the media, and I’ll just leave it at that.” – Sashi Brown

“No offer pulled,” Brown said at the NFL owner’s meeting, according to multiple reports. “I think enough has been said about it. I think a lot of players left their teams. I’ve seen a lot of their agents mouth off in the media, and I’ll just leave it at that.”

The Browns had offered Schwartz a new deal, reported to be around $7 million a year, prior to February’s NFL Scouting Combine, but were not happy because they believed that rather than negotiate in good faith, Schwartz’ agent, Deryk Gilmore, shopped the offer around the league looking for a better deal. That move, apparently, did not sit well with Brown and the team.

Cleveland has drawn a lot of attention since owner Jimmy Haslam restructured the front office with Brown, chief strategy office Paul DePodesta and vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry taking on prominent roles that normally would have gone to lifelong “football men.”

The front office structure has been openly mocked by those around the league, perhaps fearing the Browns are finally ready to stop being everyone’s punching bag, and player agents are also grumbling, as the Browns are sticking to a fiscal plan rather than just handing over a blank check whenever an agent walks in the door.

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None of that matters, of course, until the Browns start winning, a process that could still be a few years away as the team is just in the opening stages of their latest rebuilding project. And the Browns did lose some very good players in free agency, regardless of the circumstances, something that Brown admits can’t continue to happen.

“We obviously can’t put ourselves in position where we’ve got 4 starters going in free agency,” Brown told cleveland.com. “It’ll be a key part of our strategy to not just draft but also to keep them on our roster. So we’re looking forward to adding at least 10 more young talented guys and get a core nucleus of guys, we had 12 last year in the draft, 10 more this year.

“And that’ll be the core of our strategy. Once you get into in March in free agency, you’re effectively in free agency with your own guys. We respect the guys that were here but we’ll move forward with building in the draft and feel good about our opportunity to do that.”

But it is still nice to see some feistiness from the front office for a change.

Next: Sashi Brown indifferent on Josh Gordon's return

The NFL Draft will take place April 28-30 in Chicago. Be sure to follow Dawg Pound Daily to keep up with everything the Browns are trying to do while they go through their latest biennial rebuilding project.