My dad tested out as a mechanical genius when he was drafted into the Army in the first month of World War II. He didn’t tell me that — he would have never bragged about himself in such a manner — but a relative told me after he had passed away.

Whatever the case, he could fix anything. No matter how badly I had broken a toy, he found a way to put it back together so well that you wouldn’t have known anything had happened in the first place. Even as I got older, he showed me how to fix things around the house and with my car that left me shaking my head — even now, all these years later.

Indeed, until the day he died, I had the utmost confidence in my dad’s ability to repair the unrepairable.

I thought about all that Monday afternoon as I listened to Browns head coach Hue Jackson’s press conference in which he revealed all the injuries from Sunday’s 25-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Quarterback Josh McCown is out for next Sunday’s road game against the Miami Dolphins and is listed as week-to-week thereafter with a shoulder injury. Don’t expect him back anytime soon. In the meantime, rookie Cody Kessler, who’s not ready to take a snap in an NFL game, let alone start, will start against Miami. But Jackson made it clear that he was going to find a veteran and, once he gets him up to speed on the offense, will consider him to play at some point ahead of Kessler. Jackson doesn’t want to put Kessler in there and have him ruined for life mentally and emotionally if not also physically. Does anyone have Don Strock’s number?

Starting center Cam Erving is out for Sunday and also listed as week-to-week with a pulmonary contusion that, following the game, forced him to be carried out of the locker room on a stretcher and taken to the hospital, from which he has since been released.

Rookie lineman Carl Nassib, the best player on defense since the start of the preseason, is out indefinitely with a broken hand.

Did I miss anyone?

And did I mention the fact that the Browns’ next two games are on the road? Two weeks from now, on Oct. 2, they go to Washington to face the Redskins.

When they finally return home on Oct. 9, they play some team called the New England Patriots — perhaps you’ve heard of them — who are supposed to be getting some guy named Tom Brady back for that game. Perhaps you have also heard of him.

This is not exactly an enviable situation to be in for Jackson and the Browns. It’s like doing a total re-do on a house and, once you get started, realizing that it’s a much bigger job than you thought — and you already thought it was pretty big.

“No, sir, I did not realize the house is built over an ancient Indian burial ground.”

But the more the Browns sink into this mud hole, the better Jackson looks and the more valuable he and his veteran coaching staff become. Like I felt about my dad, I have confidence — complete confidence — that they can fix anything, even this.

Really.

Truly.

Just think if the Browns were being led right now by Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer. If you think it can’t get worse, will, it can — and would — if these two guys were still hanging around.

Whatever this young, inexperienced team is capable of doing this season, Jackson, Pep Hamilton, Al Saunders, Kirby Wilson, Ray Horton, et. al. will be able to squeeze it out of the Browns. They’ve seen just about everything, so their knees aren’t going to buckle, even in a cascading disaster like this one. They are just what the doctor ordered.

Whoops! Bad pun there! Sorry.

It’s not going to be fun or pretty and it’s not going to result in many wins over these remaining 14 games, but I maintain that at the end of the season, the fans are going to look back and, after seeing all the progress that was made with the horde of young players, be happy that the Browns went through this complete overhaul.

And if I’m wrong, I’ll be the first one to tell you.

In the meantime, put your mouthpiece in, buckle your chinstrap, adjust your shoulder pads to your liking and hold on tight — with both hands.