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If the Cleveland Browns’ off-season personnel wheeling and dealing feels peculiar, it should—because, well, it is. Don’t let that prove unsettling. In many, if not all, seasons since the National Football League allowed the team in 1999 to resurrect itself, the first order of business has been quarterback . . . quarterback . . . quarterback.

Either the New Browns didn’t have a quarterback, didn’t like the quarterback they had, or were pondering whether or not they should dislike their quarterback because he had not shown he could be a big winner, much less get the team to the Super Bowl. Even much of last season, an oft-asked question, or undercurrent of it, had hung over all: Is Baker Mayfield, 2018 draft No. 1 choice, good enough to make the New Browns the winner that Otto Graham had made the old Browns or Bernie Kosar very nearly had?

Graham made the late 1940s Browns All American Football Conference champions and then, after the 1950 merger with the NFL, pre-Super Bowl champions. Fellow Hall of Famer Jim Brown did the same in 1964, with Frank Ryan at quarterback. After a long fallow period, Kosar, the Northeast Ohio kid who grew up wanting nothing more than to be a Brown, led those last great old teams to the cusp of Super Bowl during the 1980s.

Since then . . . well, you know: Zippity doo dah.

This is the time of year when the New Browns have whiled away the time by hiring new coaches, new front offices, and, of course, new quarterbacks. All to no avail. That’s what makes this moment so different from the norm. The team is coming off of not only a playoff season but also a victory in the Wild Card round over heretofore invincible Pittsburgh. Such unaccustomed success has shoved the team all the way down the draft list to No. 26 so it is comforting that the team does NOT need a quarterback when it seems as if a half dozen teams are jockeying to be first in line for the pick of this litter.

Also potentially troubling are these facts: NFL teams have less to spend because for only the second time since the league instituted a salary cap in 1994, the amount dropped. It fell from a record $198.2 million for player payroll in 2020 to $182.5 million, a decline of 8 percent. The coronavirus pandemic played havoc with attendance revenue. The Browns have been good stewards of their spending since Andrew Berry returned in 2020 to the team to become general manager. Whereas a number of teams began the free-agent signing period having to jettison players to get below the cap, the Browns, with a rollover of excess cap space from last year, have been able to maneuver wisely.

Don’t get wrapped up in the numbers. Just know the Browns have and are spending enough money to reinforce the defense, which is this season’s first order of business. There is a window of contention upon the team, and it must not squander it. Though much has been made of how good the roster was last year, it was, to my way of thinking, just so much gum flapping. The roster was good but not great. Given COVID-19 issues, injuries, and a new coaching staff—Mayfield’s fourth, counting interim—prohibited from doing much but getting to know the players virtually, the results were as impressive as any Cleveland ever produced. Paul Brown didn’t have to deal with COVID-19, which cannot be benched and forced to straighten up with a look.

While speculation was overheated and overwrought about the edge rusher, leader, and humanitarian J.J. Watt joining the team, General Manager Andrew Berry made his pitch and bid and when it was not enough he took his money and invested in the defense-changing free-agent acquisition of Los Angeles Rams safety John Johnson III. Defensive coordinator Joe Woods spent 2020 unable to install his preferred defense that requires a safety who can walk and chew gum at the same time while simultaneously stopping runners he should not be big and strong enough to stop and cover receivers he should be fast enough to keep up with or quick enough to disrupt.

In addition, Berry brought aboard a ship that looks like one that takes off from water and flies Johnson’s fellow Ram, cornerback Troy Hill. He may be the best in the NFL at covering slot receivers but also can drape himself all over outside guy. In lieu of J.J. Watt, Berry thinks defensive tackle Takk McKinley can live up to the promise that prompted Atlanta to draft him and that can be a complement to Myles Garrett.

At least Berry had the good judgment, often missing in the past, to resign Browns who may not be the greatest gentlemen on cleats but who have demonstrated they can and will help the team. I’m thinking, principally, of wide receiver Rashard Higgins who wants to continue to be Mayfield’s go-to guy and compadre. Times past, these guys have been allowed to walk even if they wanted to stay. Higgins gave a home team discount.

Outsiders have praised Berry’s moves, especially acquiring Johnson and Hill. I agree. As longtime Browns writer Tony Grossi concludes, Berry now has a multitude of good options in his draft No. 2. The NFL hierarchy has gone all topsy-turvy. Want proof? Bill Belichick has turned into a free-agent spendthrift after 7-9 post-Tom Brady season, while his old team, the Browns, have reinforced their image as potential contenders. In such a situation, it is wise to heed The Athletic senior writer Don Pompei’s admonition in a Tweet about free agency: Just remember, the teams that win the first round of free agency never have won the Super Bowl.

The season, in the distance now, looks like a gauzy cloud backlit by a golden rising sun that has turned the scene a Browns orange. There is a hint of rain and beyond that a rainbow at the end of which awaits the Lombardi Trophy, gleaming just as the late Browns coach Marty Schottenheimer always promised. The flip side of this scene is, of course, a storm ripe with lightning bolts and rolling thunder. We’ve seen this before.

The fall of 1988 also began with much promise. Bernie Kosar had won the NFL passing title on his way to a second consecutive loss to Denver, 38-33, in the AFC Championship Game. The warm glow of great potential soon dissipated as the Browns went through three quarterbacks as Kosar, Gary Danielson (his mentor) and Mike Pagel went down to injury. Retired Don Strock rode to the rescue, tan and straight off the golf course, got them to a Wild Card Playoff game with Houston whom the Browns had beaten the week before. With Pagel again healthy enough to play, he got the start but Houston turned the tables, despite two second-half Pagel touchdown passes.

In the aftermath the gleam that Marty Schottenheimer had always seen turned out to be owner Art Modell and his loosed fateful lightning of this terrible swift sword; just like that the Browns most successful coach since Paul Brown was gone. And with him went the promise that only now seems to have returned. Make it real, not a mirage.