Browns' Jackson: 'We are not tanking the season'

The Browns aren't this bad on purpose.

Cleveland may be a front-runner for the No. 1 overall pick after a disappointing 0-3 start to the season, but head coach Hue Jackson is insisting that his club would never take the field playing for such a position.

"I do want everybody to know we are not tanking the season," Jackson said, according to Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports. "If that was the case, we wouldn't be trying as hard as we are. So I'm not after a first pick. I'm not after any of that. I don't think our organization is after any of that.

"We're trying to win as many games as we can win. It would make no sense to tank a season. If that's what I thought we're about, I wouldn't be sitting here today. I'm not interested in that. Our players are not interested in that. We're interested in winning. I'm interested in winning, and that's all I talk about."

To Jackson's point, the Browns have actually been more competitive than many would have anticipated heading into the rebuilding season.

Were it not for a few plays going in favor of the opposition, Cleveland could have emerged victorious over either the Baltimore Ravens or the Miami Dolphins in the last two games.

But wins will only be harder to come by as the Browns now enter a far more challenging stretch of their schedule without a number of players on the offensive side of the ball.

Tanking or not, this is a team that should once again find itself in position to draft a top quarterback next year.

Both getting the top pick and remaining competitive in the process could represent the ideal scenario for Jackson and the new leadership regime, as they look to change the culture of what's long been one of the NFL's most dysfunctional franchises.