BEREA, Ohio – In many NFL management turnovers, there is a concerted effort by new staffs to put distance between a team and a previous malaise of failure. Coaching staffs are gutted. Front offices are burned to the ground. Rosters are torn open at the seams. Some franchises even redraw the lines in the parking lot, a sort of desperate Feng shui to instigate change in every last inch of real estate.

The Cleveland Browns have been there. Repeatedly. And if they’re inclined to listen, someone will remind them every day.

“People are going to say a lot of things,” Browns head coach Hue Jackson said. “I tell my coaches and players, be careful what you let go into your ears. Because that doesn’t mean that’s what you’re going to be. This is going to be whatever you decide it’s going to be.”

So what is this going to be? The Browns are still figuring that out. But Jackson has part of the answer right now, starting with the lowest of bars. This won’t be a disaster. It won’t be the train wreck that some have predicted, suggesting this roster and coaching staff and front office are destined for another merciless season. At the very least, Jackson is standing up against the cruelest kind of punditry.

View photos Hue Jackson shares some rebuilding ideas with Robert Griffin III. (AP) More

“I’ve heard all the different things said, that maybe we’ll only win one game or maybe we’ll win no games,” Jackson said. “I hate when that’s said, because that says that Joe Thomas is not a good player. It says Joe Haden’s not a good player. It says [Gary] Barnidge is not a good player. … There are some good players here. The cupboard’s not bare. It’s probably not full, but there are players here.”

There is a lot of this season wrapped up in the belief that there are some players on the Browns’ roster. Even in the most optimistic quarters, it would be a stretch to imagine this being a franchise that flips a one-season switch and suddenly becomes playoff-worthy. But there are still other victories to be had, and Jackson and the Browns’ brain trust are already sensing them within their grasp.

More than anything, that’s what 2016 is about for this staff. Finding some cornerstones on a roster filled with youth. Instilling a sense of conviction and accountability that may not have been supported on previous staffs or in past football decisions. And maybe more than anything, getting the fan base to rebuy into the build with actions rather than promises or slogans.

“I wish we had the exact right answer,” head of football operations Sashi Brown said of his benchmarks for progress. “The first thing is accountability. I mean that a couple different ways. When we’re out here practicing, are we getting better every day? Are we competing every day? You’re seeing that. But until you see it on the field …”

Brown didn’t need to finish that sentence. Everyone who has pumped emotion into this franchise has the remainder of that thought seared into them.

That kind of wariness is fair. It has been constructed over several decades of failure. And in some ways, the reticence is invited. In truth, there is some conflict and risk within the early stages of this build. There are some leaps of trust. The Browns are preaching self-accountability and change, yet they brought in quarterback Robert Griffin, who was criticized (fairly or not) as being one of the least accountable players on the Washington Redskins’ roster in recent years. He was officially named the starting quarterback on Monday.

This regime also extended another chance to wideout Josh Gordon, who hasn’t played since 2014 – by virtue of suspensions that would seem to spell out a lack of personal accountability.

The Browns are expected to lean heavily on these two players in the rebuild, which says something about the fine line being walked in Cleveland. It straddles the concepts of total culture change and hopeful rehabilitation. Maybe no player epitomizes that more than Gordon, who has deep roots in the past failures of this team but who also can be a major part of the pivot point that leads to an ascent. From the outside looking in, the world sees suspensions and mistakes. Brown and the front office know this.

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