New Browns General Manager John Dorsey has been on the job for only a little over a week and already he’s making big news.

And not all of it is good.

First things first. It’s not a big deal – or even news, really – that Dorsey, in a radio interview on Thursday, said that his objective for 2018 is for the Browns to win the AFC North title, something they’ve not done in the 16-year history of the division.

What is he supposed to say, that he projects the Browns to finish dead in the North again? What kind of message would that be sending by setting the bar that low – on the basemen floor, as it were?

Now for the stuff that is a big deal.

Again in that same radio interview, Dorsey trashed the previous regime – the one led by his predecessor, former Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown — for not getting head coach Hue Jackson “real players.”

Well, OK.

Whether you believe that or not, there’s just one question: how do Dorsey’s comments make those “fake” players feel who are currently on the roster? Probably not real good, which is a negative in that these so-called impersonators still have three games remaining as they desperately try to get their first win of the season and avoid an oh-for-16 2017.

Now for the news that’s an even bigger deal. It comes with Dorsey failing to confirm in the radio interview that Jackson will return for next season. This comes after owner Jimmy Haslam said Jackson would be back.

Hmmm.

Did everybody misunderstand what Haslam was saying last week?

Or did everybody misunderstand what Dorsey was saying Thursday?

Or both?

No one seems to know the answers to those questions right now.

It seems like a pretty black-and-white situation in that Jackson will either return or not. He will either get at least another year or be fired, presumably at the end of this season.

The Browns – in the person of Dorsey and, more importantly, Haslam — have got to figure this out in terms of making a clear public statement as to Jackson’s fate. He’s the head coach. He is in charge of the on-field performance of the football team. We’re not talking about the interns working in the equipment department.

This is not how I thought Dorsey’s tenure would start. And it’s certainly not how I wanted it to start. It points toward dysfunction, something of which the Browns have had way too much for way too long.