Browns may be AFC North favorite in '19
Cleveland has pieces to a 12-win team but hid them behind one lousy coach.
Let’s call the Browns what they clearly CLEVELAND — are: The favorites to win the AFC North in 2019.
Something involving a Tennessee tie still gives the Browns a one percent chance at a playoff spot this season, but when the Steelers beat New England on Sunday night, eliminating any chance the Browns had to win the division, the last two games of this season became the first two games of next season.
The team playing these last two against Cincinnati and at Baltimore and all 16 of those babies a year from now — that team’s pretty good.
You’ve waited for these Browns, and now they’re here. Even if you didn’t wait for them, if you threatened to boycott them through 1-31 and hated every draft pick traded and every veteran jettisoned, they’re here anyway.
There may not be a fanbase that ever earned a team as much as Browns fans earned the 2019 Cleveland Browns, who, again, are the division favorites according to some experts. While the 2018 playoff talk was always a little far-fetched, the 2019 playoffs aren’t just realistic, they’re expected.
No one knew what to make of the 2018 Browns, the confusion caused by Hue Jackson hiding a real team behind his 0-16 incompetence a year ago. So this 4-2 record under Gregg Williams might feel like a surprise when it shouldn’t. It’s like a home improvement show where you rip up the shag carpet and find beautiful hardwood floors. The hardwood was there.
Hue Jackson was shag carpet.
So a quick look at the 2019 schedule (yeah, we’re doing this) finds two wins against the fading Bengals plus wins over Buffalo, Miami, the Jets, Arizona and San Francisco. That’s seven wins over teams clearly worse than the Browns right now, teams that aren’t
magically going to get better than Cleveland. Let’s figure splits with Pittsburgh and Baltimore, because the division doormat days are over. That’s nine.
That leaves New England, Seattle, the Rams and one opponent each from the AFC West (probably Denver) and AFC South (probably Tennessee). Give the Browns one win against the first three, and assume the Broncos and Titans can be handled. That’s 12-4.
And you don’t feel crazy. Because there are pieces of a 12-4 team this season.
If the Browns beat the Bengals and Ravens to end the season, Williams will be 6-2 as a head coach. That’s half of 12-4.And Baker Mayfield didn’t play the first two games. And Nick Chubb barely played the first six.
Give Chubb a full season of what he’s done since he was rescued from the bench, that’s nearly 1,400 rushing yards. Give Mayfield 16 games and that’s 4,250 passing yards, 71 percent completions, and 35 touchdown passes.
It’s not just the quarterback and rookie running back. There isn’t any position where the Browns will get worse. But there’s plenty of room for improvement.
At receiver, they went into camp assuming Josh Gordon and Corey Coleman would serve as two of their top receivers. They survived without them and now can add Jarvis Landry, Antonio Callaway and Rashard Higgins through the draft or free agency.
On the offensive line, the interior is rock solid, and they’ve stumbled through this season at left tackle after failing to replace Hall of Famer Joe Thomas. This position will be addressed with draft capital or cap space.
The whole team is young, especially the defense. Of the 22 Browns who have played the most snaps, none is older than 30. Of the 13 defenders who have played the most, only Jamie Collins and T.J. Carrie are older than 26.
The Browns have the most cap space in the league, all their own picks in the first six rounds of the 2019 draft, plus an extra third-rounder and two extra fifth-rounders.
So 2019 starts in First Energy Stadium on Sunday, another chance to show what was buried under that shag carpet the whole time.