Sashi Brown

Sashi Brown held his pre-draft press conference on Thursday in Berea.

(John Kuntz, cleveland.com)

BEREA, Ohio -- Cleveland Browns Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown had a small slip-up at the beginning of his pre-draft press conference on Thursday.

"Glad to meet with you before we head into the draft next year," he said before quickly correcting himself. "I'm sorry, next week, rather. Already thinking about next year."

An honest mistake for sure, but the perfect opening to a press conference the day after the Browns traded away the No. 2 overall pick for a king's ransom in return. It's a move that has been praised by many on the national level and one that, once the return for the Browns on the deal came out, was difficult to argue with.

The Browns will possess 12 draft picks this season, including six in the top 100. They received the Eagles' first-round pick next year and their second-round pick in 2018 along with a third and fourth rounder this year. All that for the right to not pick a quarterback who is as divisive a prospect as any has been this high in the draft in North Dakota State's Carson Wentz.

"We understand that risk in moving back that we may have passed on a quarterback that is going to go on to certainly have a great career in this league," Brown said, "but we felt like for the other additional picks that we were able to acquire that we were in a much better position to build our roster moving forward."

"I had a big smile on my face," head coach Hue Jackson said. "I was excited and ecstatic about what Sashi and his group has done for our football team. Obviously, we felt that was the best thing for our organization, and I truly believe that whole-heartedly. I'm really excited about watching how the draft unfolds for us next week because we're going to have an opportunity to put some talented football players on our team to add to the guys that are here. As I said, collectively everywhere we need to continue to get better. I think what Sashi and the group did was give us that opportunity, and I think that was very important."

Let's call this what it is at this point. This isn't a rebuild. This is a full-on restart. Brown was hesitant to say how many starters he needed to get out of this particular draft, but, again, let's call this what it is: a foundation-building draft. They need to get starters and plenty of them.

Brown, Jackson and the rest of the revamped Browns regime are paying the price this season for past front offices failing to capitalize on seven first-round picks in the last four drafts. This week in particular placed a spotlight on those failures. Of the four remaining players from those seven picks, three -- Barkevious Mingo, Danny Shelton and Cameron Erving -- spent time talking about the work they did this off-season to try to live up to expectations. The fourth, Justin Gilbert, didn't even merit a question from the media.

There was an assessment that had to be made when the Los Angeles Rams pulled the trigger on a deal with the Tennessee Titans to move up to No. 1, even though Brown downplayed the Rams-Titans deal in his team's decision to follow suit. Is the quarterback anticipated at No. 2 -- likely Wentz -- equal to the potential to restock a roster bereft of talent at every position? The Eagles' offer, it would appear, made passing on an FCS quarterback with 612 pass attempts in his college career make sense.

There could be more to come. Brown didn't rule out trading down from No. 8.

"It is the same calculus in terms of what someone is willing to offer and the players that could be available to us at that spot," Brown said.

It's not just there, either. The No. 32 pick will be sitting for some 19 hours between rounds one and two, begging for a team to jump at a player who fell out of the first round. The Browns possess the top two picks on Day Three and three of the five picks between Nos. 172 and 176 (172, 173 and 176 if you're scoring at home). Many of those are primed to move up or, yes, move down.

The players picked next week will have an impact on 2016, of course, just as a new coaching staff might help members of last year's class reach their potential. Trading the No. 2 pick, though, is nothing short of shifting the focus towards the future. It's attempting to put a foundation in place first and taking flyers on the likes of Robert Griffin III and perhaps a second- or third-tier draft prospect. It's a dangerous game to not address the quarterback position when the opportunity is there, but it's one the Browns appear willing to play.

Next week brings yet another potentially franchise-changing draft. That change won't happen in one year, though. With that in mind, it's never too early, as Brown inadvertently stated, to start thinking about next year.