Joe Thomas won’t be leaving the Browns while Hue Jackson is head coach

Since being drafted third overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, Joe Thomas has been the foundation from which the Cleveland Browns have built their roster. As long as Hue Jackson is the team’s head coach, he’ll stay that way.

Thomas has been the subject of trade deadline rumors each of the past three seasons as the Browns have spiraled further and further from relevance. On Wednesday, Jackson made it a point to say his All-Pro left tackle is committed to the team — and the team is committed to him.

The news came the same day ESPN’s Elizabeth Merrill ran an in-depth profile of the stoic lineman, detailing his career amid the ruins of a once-proud NFL franchise. Thomas has seen only one winning season in his nine-plus seasons on Lake Erie. He’s never been to the playoffs, but he’s been selected to the Pro Bowl every year he’s been in the league. He looks like a lock to make it a 10th straight time, and he wants to use that talent to rebuild his Browns from the ground up.

Thomas was nearly traded to Denver in 2015, but that deal fell through at the last moment. Despite the lost opportunity of playing for the eventual Super Bowl champions, the accomplished lineman has no regrets about staying with the only NFL team he’s ever known.

“I’m a Clevelander,” Thomas told Merrill. “I’ve spent the majority of my adult life here. Every day when I come to work, it’s ‘Let’s turn this team into a consistent winner.’ Because it would be such a special story. It would be like when the Cubs won the World Series. Everybody in the country has probably been cheering for them for so long because they’ve been suffering for so long. And you want to cheer for teams like the Browns.

“It’s so important for me to be here for the turnaround. I don’t want to just get a Super Bowl ring [by] being traded to a dream team. It would feel unsatisfying. Unfulfilling.”

Thomas wants to stay in Cleveland. Jackson wants him there as well. But the 0-12 Browns have a lot of work to do to give Thomas the only thing he wants — a turnaround on par with the rest of Cleveland’s oft-maligned franchises.