I agree that they wanted him to stay, but I actually chose that passage because I thought it provided a ton of context. The key phrase was "the new leadership's 'vision for winning." The Browns were about to cut salary and plan to acquire more draft capital. They were in no way trying to win in those first couple of years.
Ok...this is what I was referring to as lacking context:
"That was Sashi's first year. He had said it was important to keep our free agents and then we lost Mack, Schwartz, Gipson, and Benjamin."
Mack signed a contract with the Jags the year before his ultimate Browns opt-out in March 2016. We matched the Jags offer and brought Mack back. He wanted out the year BEFORE he was able to leave (without us stopping him)...so in 2015. Sashi was put in charge of football ops in January 2016. So...by that time, Mack had already tried to get out. Farmer was the GM until Jan 2016...Mack tried to escape in 2015...Pettine was the HC pre-2016 (and was a flop)...Hue Disaster was hired Jan 2016.
The Schwartz situation was mishandled by us AND his agent. We lost a very good player and Schwartz lost a ton of $$$. We offered him more money than anyone else and more than he signed-for elsewhere. That debacle was NOT about ^ "The Browns were about to cut salary and plan to acquire more draft capital."
Gipson had ONE good year in his entire career. He was - and remained - just a guy. He wanted - and got - paid way more than any team should have paid. That wasn't a salary cut and we got no draft capital back after he left. That was simply not seeing eye-to-eye on value...just like with Jarvis Landry last month.
Benjamin was always a 4th-5th WR who managed to get paid like a #2 in his second contract. Cut-and-paste to follow: He was - and remained - just a guy. He wanted - and got - paid way more than any team should have paid. That wasn't a salary cut and we got no draft capital back after he left. That was simply not seeing eye-to-eye on value...just like with Jarvis Landry last month.
