In case there was still any doubt — and there shouldn’t have been – that the Browns were in the first stages of a total rebuild, then it was surely washed away on Wednesday when they released inside linebacker Karlos Dansby.

Dansby performed well in 2015 and might still have a year or two of tread left on his tires, but with the fact he has already played 12 years in the NFL and will turn 35 on Nov. 3, he is worth more to the Browns off the roster with the $8.5 million in salary cap savings over the next two seasons, than he is on it. The Browns aren’t going to be a contender in that span. If and when they do, then Dansby will be retired.

Dansby joins six other Browns already lost in free agency in center Alex Mack, safety Tashaun Gipson, wide receiver/returner Travis Benjamin, special teamer/cornerback Johnson Bademosi, right tackle Mitchell Schwartz and wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who was also released on Wednesday.

Mack is a three-time Pro Bowler, Gipson was selected once to the Pro Bowl, Benjamin is a good returner and Bademosi was the Browns’ best cover man on special teams. So those four players will be missed.

Schwartz might be the most over-rated right tackle in the game, and Bowe is arguably the worst free-agent signing in Browns history. Thus, good riddance to those two players.

Nonetheless, Schwartz was a starter, and in letting him and the others walk, the Browns now have more holes to fill than they did at the end of last season. And they had a lot of holes then.

Also, with the Browns having such a full-scale fire sale (say that three times fast), it appears that safety Donte Whitner, another aging veteran in that he has played 10 seasons and will turn 31 just as training camp is beginning, will be gone as well sooner rather than later. Get ready for that news.

Now, is all that a good thing or a bad thing for the Browns?

It’s bad in the short term, because at this point, projecting a second straight 3-13 finish next season may be a bit optimistic.

But the Browns didn’t win with those players, and they can certainly continue to lose without them while at the same time clearing a lot of cap space.

The Browns are hoping that their re-do efforts will be good in the long run. That’s the plan. Now that is crystal clear.

That’s all well and good to start over and build from the ground up, but to make it work, the Browns have to make sound decisions with the procurement of players who will replace those who have been lost. They have to be right in their moves. They can’t just get close to the target. They have to hit it – again and again and again.

If they misfire in this aspect, then they will end up treading water and all the coaches, scouts and football decision-makers will eventually “end up selling shoes at Walmart,” as former Cleveland head coach Butch Davis used to say.

Most Browns fans, I think, would be willing to take those several steps backward with the team if they were convinced there were going to be quantum leaps forward. In that way, then, the Browns might become not just a one-hit wonder, but rather a consistent contender. It doesn’t get any better than that, and this is fan base certainly deserves such.

But how can fans have confidence that those positives will ever materialize? Certainly, there are no guarantees in any situation regarding such a major task, but it becomes seemingly even more daunting with the way the Browns are going about it with young Harvard guys using analytics to make personnel decisions.

The fans’ trump card in all this is head coach Hue Jackson and the impressive staff he’s put together with guys like Al Saunders, Pep Hamilton, Ray Horton and Kirby Wilson. Those guys know what they’re doing. As much as the Harvard guys lack experience and a track record, the coaches have experience and good resumes. And as such, I just can’t believe they would sign off on all these moves if they were uncertain about them. They must be all in on this reconstruction project as well.

If that’s true – and I think that it is – then good things may be in store.

But let’s be clear in saying that this project might be painful at first. No, not might, but rather it will definitely be painful. In a way, though, it will be fun – and interesting – to see how the Browns try to do it, and even if they can do it.

What will also be intriguing is watching how the Browns couch what they’re doing. They won’t call it a total rebuilding effort. No way. That’s bad PR. That’s an audience-killer. Instead, they’ll put their Harvard brains together and come up with some fancy-sounding cerebral term that will have a much more warm and fuzzy feel to it.

It it works, then it will have been worth the time and effort.

And if doesn’t, then it will be just like all the other seasons and regimes in the expansion era.

Been there, done that.

Call me crazy – and I’m sure that a lot of people do — but I think it has a chance to work.

I really do.

But patience won’t by simple a virtue. It will be a necessity.

Buckle your seat belt. Here we go.

And put your hard hat on so you don’t get hit all the falling bricks and mortal of what once was, but didn’t work.