Knowing that DeShaun Watson was going to miss a huge portion
Of the year.
Look at the facts

Most cap space in the league
Signed Taven Bryan to be a starting DT. The Jags didn't want him any longer
Did very little to add playmaker to WR core
Did not upgrade the LB room
Still retained Joe Woods for the 2022 season

11 weeks in, this front office failed to add available talent
That have found new teams...

These moves make you question if Haslsm really wants to win.
He has owned the team for a decade
1 playoff appearance. Which I think many Browns fans forget about

I think you will have some responses that will go in both directions. I will say this. Unused cap space rolls over to next year. With the watson contract kicking in that money can be beneficial come next season when watson will play his first full season as a Brown.

I think you will find some people that will want to have their cake and eat it too. You see, analytics is weighing all factors and basing decisions upon the data. So at that point one has to ask themselves, would using a large portion of that cap space this season really be the wise way to invest it with having Brissett starting 11 out of 17 games? Or would that cap space likely do more good next year with watson starting the entire season? The conclusion each poster comes to based upon that should answer the question you are asking of them.

That doesn't actually address whether they intended on winning. It does however determine the investment they were willing to spend in an attempt to make that happen given the situation with watson.

Darn that's a super smart answer

Remember, no more talk of next year, only allowed talk of this year, they have talked of next year for the last 20five years
so, did they intend to win? I guess so but with Jacoby Brizzet instead of Baker Mayfield,
I don't think they wanted to keep their fan baze.

As soon as Watson’s suspension was longer than 4-6 games the year was basically lost. The only chance we had was to win all of the early 50/50 games. And we lost most of them.

And anyone with a brain new that the suspension was going to be longer and the season was going to be flushed down the crapper. But to point that out was to get ridiculed by some.

I predicted a poor season record-wise, but I didn't think we would get such poor play. I thought the team would play hard but lose because QB is so important. Instead, the Browns aren't competitive and the head coach is being exposed for being incompetent at his job.

Intend to lose?

No.

Fell prey to the law of untended consequences?

You bet.

I think that they believed their own hype. As others have said they did not address various positions either prior to the season or at trade deadline. I also have issue with Stefanski. I think he reached the level of his incompetence. He was flavor of the month as an OC. Once he became HC different things were required of him. Imo, the biggest issue was last year. Baker was injured. Baker flat out should not have played. Even if the medical staff cleared him Stefanski should have made the call not to play him. They weren’t going anywhere anyway. Now, Baker’s shortcomings were not the issue. The issue was Stefanski’s ability and limitations.

They will hopefully ALL be fired this year!

That is a dumb question.

No is the simple answer.

The only issue with your answer (which is well thought out) is that in January, February, and March plus up to and including the draft in May, the Browns were fully aware of their shortcomings at WR, DT, and LB which they failed to adequately address. It was also during the latter portion of this timeframe that the Browns had some knowledge of a possible suspension but nothing concrete. IMHO, the Browns had no intention of fixing the WR issues much less than the DT or LB problems or they would have done it during the timeframe where most teams address their shortcomings. To even suggest that Berry didn't invest because he knew Watson was gone for 11 games is basically not true. He had no idea of any suspension much less the length. Berry and the FO didn't address those positions because they believed they were already adequately staffed from their minor moves plain and simple.

"Did the front office intend not to WIN this year?"

That list of records is tough to look at