Sashi Brown

Sashi Brown hasn't lowered his expectations just because the Browns went 1-15 in 2016.

(John Kuntz / cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns head of football operations Sashi Brown, fresh off the NFL draft, assured fans Friday that the Browns are coming to play this season.

"The draft is the draft, but not much that happens in the spring matters in the fall,'' Brown said Friday morning on WKNR 850 AM, the team's co-flagship station. "The fall is what matters to us and we've talked about that. ... I know there's a lot of hype around the draft, but we've got to get to winning and we've got to get to winning soon.

"Sure, we're glad to have executed, we're happy with what we could've done, but we need all of this to translate so the fans can be celebrating wins in the fall and that's our central goal and everybody here knows that. The piece that leads to that obviously is getting our pipeline of young talent together and I think we had a big weekend. We really did and put 10 young guys on the team that are going to be here for a long time and help us win some of those games.''

But, Brown stressed, the expectations remain the same, regardless of where they are in the process.

"For us, it's win the AFC North, get into the playoffs and see what happens from there,'' he said. "We do understand where our roster is, but no, our expectations are high. And the expectation is to win and win now and I think when you buy into, 'we're going to take a year off,' you're adopting a losing mentality and we're not going to do that here.''

During his post-draft press conference last weekend, Brown reiterated that the bar is high -- despite the Browns' 1-15 record last season.

"We go out to win, and we're not judging how good we are based on a draft class or a free agency class or anything on paper,'' he said. "For us, it's out there between the lines. That's where the buck stops, period. We are here to win games."

He acknowledged that the draft "was a big weekend for us'' and "our first round was a home run'' but that it's a work in progress. The Browns added Myles Garrett, Jabrill Peppers and David Njoku among others, and are poised for a monster draft next year with two first-rounders and three second-rounders

"We want to perpetually be getting better,'' said Brown. "We're not going to rest now. We ultimately will go out and start having conversations with people based on opportunities that will come out of the draft over the next week or two and watch some guys around the league and what falls out that can potentially can continue to help us. It is a continual process."