Former Browns DB Jason McCourty: 'No Way' We Were Trying to Win During 0-16 Season

Jason McCourty, who was a member of the 0-16 Cleveland Browns in 2017, is backing up suggestions from Hue Jackson that the team wasn't trying to win games. 

Speaking on his Double Coverage podcast (starts at 9:45 mark), McCourty said "there is no way" the Browns were trying to win games. 

McCourty did add none of the players were privy to any conversations about tanking, but "it was very obvious" the Browns weren't putting their best foot forward in 2017. 

Jackson, who coached the Browns from 2016 to 2018, implied on Twitter this week that team owner Jimmy Haslam was giving him bonus money with each loss during the winless season. 

Haslam has denied any suggestion of paying Jackson to lose, however, telling Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel that Jackson "has never ever accepted any responsibility for our record during that time period."

Jackson went on SportsCenter (h/t Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post) to clarify what he meant by his original comment:

"Well, I need to really explain that because I think people have taken that and run and said, ‘Hey, I think you were in on something that happened.' What I was trying to make sure people understood is that we were paid for—you’re gonna see it as losing—but the way the team was built, there was no chance to win, and win at a high level. You’re in a situation where what you have to do is do the best you can. My record that year was 1-15."

Accusations of NFL teams tanking came up this week as part of Brian Flores' class-action lawsuit accusing the league and all 32 teams of racial discrimination in the process of hiring coaches. 

Flores said in the lawsuit that Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay him $100,000 per loss during the 2019 season as an incentive to improve the team's draft position. 

Ross has denied the allegation, saying in a statement it is "false, malicious and defamatory."

The 2017 Browns joined the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only teams in NFL history to finish a season 0-16. 

Jackson led the Browns to a 1-31 record over his first two seasons as head coach from 2016-17. He was fired midway through the 2018 season after the team got off to a 2-5-1 start. 

McCourty's only season with the Browns was in 2017. He was traded to the New England Patriots in March 2018 and spent three years with the club. The 34-year-old signed with the Dolphins as a free agent last offseason.