I get that Joe Thomas is tired of upheaval every year or two, but I really hope he stays on. There’s no way the team could come close to replacing that kind of consistent excellence at the key left tackle position.

Of their eight possible unrestricted free agents, the Browns will probably lose at least two veteran offensive line starters, Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz. If JT departs too, that’s just devastating, particularly if you want to provide a new quarterback with any kind of time to find success. And especially since there will be so much other transition throughout the organization and the roster to attend to.

Thomas is obviously the best Browns player of the new generation, and nobody has earned more playing for the team than him. He’s under contract through 2018 at about $10 million per season. His salary cap hit is not outrageous, and he just turned 31 last month. By opening day next September, if he’s not traded, he will have received over $100,000,000 of the Lerners’ and Haslams’ money.

If the Browns’ analytics approach and the incoming coach determine they’d be better off without Joe Thomas, that will be a sign of doom for the new regime. How could it happen? Some combination of the following:

• Out of respect for the player, the Browns could accede to a trade request.
• The value they’d receive in return from another team would be too tempting to pass up (though, as mentioned, there’s no replacing a nine-time Pro Bowl blind-side tackle who’s never missed a snap).
• He could threaten to retire, in which case the Browns would risk getting nothing for him.

One question that the Haslams, Sashi Brown, and consultant Jed Hughes should be asking in every head coach interview, be it Adam Gase, Doug Marrone, Teryl Austin, Matt Patricia, Chip Kelly or whoever,  is this:

“After all the changes and losses over the years, our best player is publicly musing about leaving the Cleveland Browns. If you were hired, how would you approach Joe Thomas and his situation?”