"There is no way we were trying to win": Jason McCourty agrees with Hue Jackson that the Cleveland Browns were tanking 0-16 season

After Brian Flores’ allegations, former Brown HC Hue Jackson revealed that the 2017 Browns team was coerced into tanking by their owner. And Jason McCourty agrees with Jackson.

After Brian Flores alleged in a lawsuit that the Dolphins offered him $100,000 per loss during the 2019 season, former Browns head coach Hue Jackson, suggested that he too was forced to tank during the 2016 and 2017 season. The Brown’s went 1-31, including the infamous 2017 season.

“What I was approached by is understanding what the four-year plan was,” Jackson said. “And I think if we understood the mechanics of it, and how it was laid out, I never knew the plan would lead to those things and I didn’t understand it to be very honest. And then once I was in it, and understood everything that was on that plan and how it affected myself and how others were being paid from it, then it made sense to me that this is a team that can’t win, that the first two years, that’s why it doesn’t talk about winning.”

Hue Jackson suggests he was paid extra for losses as Browns head coach. https://t.co/NZJv37PwkP

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 2, 2022

Jason McCourty was a part of that infamous team as well. And he detailed that season and Hue Jackson’s comments.

Jason McCourty said that the Cleveland Browns were tanking in 2017.

McCourty worst season in the NFL came in his lone season as a Cleveland Brown. And he talked about how dysfunctional that season was.

“I was in Cleveland in 2017,” McCourty said on his podcast. “There’s no way we were trying to win. It was very obvious. That is to no surprise to anyone. You don’t need me to corroborate the story and say ‘We were tanking, we were trying to lose.’

“Duh. I said this when I got to New England, you realize winning in the NFL is not easy, so you don’t want to take it for granted, you celebrate your wins. But the year I spent in Cleveland also taught me, winning ain’t this hard either. You don’t just go 1-31. It’s not that hard to figure out on the other end of it.”