I had made it clear for months that I wanted very much for the Browns to think – to think very long and very hard – about holding on to their No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft and taking a quarterback, either Cal’s Jared Goff or North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz, so as to get this complete rebuilding job jump-started.

But instead, they blinked on Wednesday in a high-stakes poker game and pulled off a big, way-too-early trade with Philadelphia.

They gave up that No. 2 and a conditional 2017 fourth-round choice for the Eagles’ first-round pick (No. 8 overall), their third-rounder (No. 77) and their fourth-rounder (No. 100) this year, plus Philadelphia’s 2017 first-rounder and its 2018 second-rounder.

That gives Cleveland six of the top 100 picks, and eight of the top 141, in this year’s draft. The Browns already had the first choice in the second round at No. 32 overall, the second pick in the third round at No. 65, the first selection of the fourth round at No. 99, a pick at the end of the fourth round at no. 138 and the second choice of the fifth round at No. 141.

With all those high picks, the Browns have a wonderful opportunity to really enhance their roster. To do so would be a tremendous reversal in fortunes from previous regimes, which also traded to get extra picks and then squandered them badly.

So you’ll have to excuse Browns fans if they’re not quite ready to start dancing in the streets.

And it’s likely that the Browns aren’t done wheeling and dealing. This may be just the start of it, in fact. Look for them to package some of those picks to try move back up into the first round and get another difference-maker to go along with the one they get at No. 8.

It’s not surprising the Browns made the deal with the Eagles. It had been rumored since Tuesday. This is how analytics works, and since the Browns are fully committed to analytics, we had better get used to this type of thing. The Browns have a lot of needs, not just quarterback, and by picking up a wheelbarrow-full of picks, they can try to address a lot more of those needs.

What is surprising – actually, positively stunning, in fact – is that they pulled off the trade a full eight days before the draft begins next Thursday night. What’s the big rush? The Browns held all the cards with that No. 2 pick. They were in a position of power. If the Eagles, or another team, wanted that pick – really wanted it and couldn’t do without it — then the Browns could hold them up by asking for even more than what they got. In that kind of situation, you worry about the Eagles blinking as the draft draws near. Instead, it was the Browns blinking before they really took the time to maximize their opportunities.

This isn’t about playing nice with your trade partner so as to make sure both teams come away with what they were after. This is about fleecing that club for everything it’s worth.

The Browns were too giving, too agreeable, too early. That’s a bad look for the team’s new regime.

So, too, is the fact the Browns won’t get their top-of-the-draft franchise quarterback, something they’ve looked for since they came back in 1999. When is that guy going to arrive? It’s good to get the quantity with all of those extra draft picks, but it’s even better to have quality, especially with the man under center.

While the Browns seem oh, so eager to pass on Goff and Wentz, the Eagles are oh, so eager to have a crack at one of them. What do the Eagles see that the Browns don’t, or vice-versa? If the Eagles take one of those quarterbacks and he turns out to be a star, the Browns will be left with egg on their face. But if that quarterback flops, then it will be the Eagles – and their new regime – that will have to answer some tough questions.

Browns head coach Hue Jackson has said he will take a quarterback in the draft, and Wednesday’s trade will seemingly make it harder for him to find the right one. He will have to sort through the b-listers to do it. Jackson’s reputation has been built on his knowledge of quarterbacks, so we’ll see if he can live up to that.

But I have much more faith in Jackson in that regard than I did in every head coach the Browns have had in the expansion era. So if the Browns are going to make a bold move like this, they have the right man to try to pull it off.

And as we’ve said all along, no matter what the Browns do in this draft, particularly at quarterback, and with all these assorted other moves as well, they absolutely, positively have to get it right. Not just kind of right, mind, but dead-on right, smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-the-bulls eye right. That’s how far behind the Browns are in the AFC North. They have no room for error.

Adding a little – or even a lot of — spice to Wednesday’s trade is that the Browns and Eagles open the regular season in Philadelphia on Sept. 11. By then, we’ll know plenty more about both teams, including which one appears at least at that point to have gotten the better of the deal.