Browns’Mack might choose to leave Cleveland,

Pro Bowl center can opt for free agency, leave Cleveland.

The Browns BEREA— believe center Alex Mack’s most recent Pro Bowl selection is justified because he has excelled lately despite suffering a devastating injury last year.

It’s good news for the Browns but probably better news for Mack if he chooses to opt out of his contract after this season.

“He could. We don’t have much control over that,” coach Mike Pettine said Wednesday before practice. “That’s his personal decision. It’s in his favor that he has that in his contract, and we’ll react accordingly. Alex Mack’s a Cleveland Brown. We’d love to have him here and be a part of what we’re doing, but that’s a decision that’ll be made down the road.”

Mack, 30, sidestepped several questions about his contract situation after practice. He did suggest he’s sick of losing — the Browns are 29-70, including 3-11 this season, in his 99 career games — but insisted he wouldn’t know how he’d proceed with his opt-out clause immediately after the Jan. 3 finale.

“I’m not going to worry aboutmy decision now,” Mack said. “I will say winning is really important to me.”

Last year, the Browns matched a five-year, $42 million offer sheet Mack signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars after Cleveland used a transition tag on him. The deal gives Mack the power to opt out after this season or stay with the Browns for $8 million in each of the next three years.

Should Mack choose to hit the open market in free agency, he would be coveted. He’ll play in his third Pro Bowl after missing the final 11 games last season with a fractured left fibula.

“I know he started the year slow, but he’s been playing his best football over the last several weeks,” Pettine said. “It’s a statement to his perseverance, how hard he worked. It’s good to see. ... He’s improved significantly fromthe start of the season, and he’s back now. If you just look at his last month, he is playing at a high level.

“It was more than just a broken ankle. There was some ligament damage. There was a lot for him to overcome. ... A lot of times with those injuries whether it’s a knee or something where it was that devastating of an injury that I think the body part gets to the point where structurally it’s fine, but it’s somuch more the mental, the ability to trust it. ... It appears to us he’s much more confident in it than he was earlier in the year.”

Mack’s confidence has indeed been restored.

Asked if he has returned to the level he had reached before the injury, Mack said, “Yes. I think it has been a long road. A lot of work has gone into it. I put in a lot of work, and I feel like I have done some good things on the field.”

Left tackle and fellow Pro Bowler Joe Thomas is proud of his close friend.

“It’s impressive that a guy that comes off of such a bad broken leg, other injuries, is able to come back, and he’s to the point now where you don’t even think about it,” Thomas said.

“You wouldn’t even know, except for the scar on his leg, that he had a bad injury last year.”