ESPN NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper called the Browns “a glorified expansion team” on Tuesday, and people are throwing up their arms in shock and dismay?

Really?

Browns Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown is reportedly actively shoppingthe club’s No. 2 overall pick in the draft, and people are stunned?

Again, really?

I’m shocked and dismayed that people are shocked and dismayed about Kiper’s comment.

I’m stunned that people are stunned that Brown is supposedly actively shopping that No. 2 pick.

First things first: On Kiper’s comment, he’s right. The Browns really are “a glorified expansion team” right now. But you knew that already, didn’t you? Well, didn’t you?

What do you think was going on when the Browns were getting rid of a good number of their older players? It was a youth movement. By the time the Browns expect to be good, those players will be even older and less effective, so they are cutting ties with them now so they can begin this rebuilding project in earnest.

The decision to not re-sign their top free agents, especially center Alex Mack and safety Tashaun Gipson, is harder – a lot harder, really – to understand, but the Browns’ thinking on this is similar to what it was with the release of the older players. That is, the Browns want to take the money they’re saving and pour it back into young, talented players.

That’s what expansion teams do. That’s who they are.

And that’s OK with me, because if the players with whom the Browns have parted ways are so good, so irreplaceable, then why has the club had eight consecutive losing seasons?

I’m more than willing – actually, I’m anxious – to try something different to get the team on the right track.

Doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results is, as they say, the definition of insanity.

As for Brown reportedly letting it be known that the No. 2 overall draft pick can be had at the right – steep – price, the thought process is the same. The Browns are, as mentioned, trying to stockpile young talent to fill all, or at least a lot, of their holes, and a good way to attempt to do that would be to deal that No. 2 for a bucket-load of picks.

Brown has to see if that possibility exists. He would be derelict in his duties if he failed to do so. He asks for a king’s ransom, and if a team is willing to offer it, then he has to consider it.

Every team at the top of the draft has floated that kind of trial balloon since the draft was instituted. So why in the world would anyone be even remotely surprised, let alone stunned, that the Browns are doing it as well?

Brown doesn’t have to make the deal. If he’s not overwhelmed by what teams want to give him, then he just keeps the pick. It’s no more complicated than that.

Fans need to get used to these types of things. They will continue as this rebuilding effort continues.