ESPN Power Rankings: Browns Drop While on Bye

The Cleveland Browns spent their Bye Week looking for ways to improve their team from their 1 -2 start. Fans of the team are cautiously optimistic after three close games against good competition. Obviously being close won’t be good enough long term, even starting this week in their all important fourth game, but for now a good start.

ESPN Power Rankings started with the Browns near the bottom. Their win against the Saints as well as being competitive in the other two games has garnered the team some respect. Yet this week the Browns fell one spot, even though they didn’t play:

"25Browns1-2Last Week: 24The Browns have been within a field goal in each game against the Steelers, Saints and Ravens. They’ll welcome the Titans, Jaguars and Raiders in three of the next four."

The insinuation is that ESPN expects the Browns to be more than just competitive against those three opponents.  Add in the Steelers in that span and a four game win streak would likely vault the Browns near the Top 10 but likely the quality of their opponents would keep them held back just a bit.

The Browns dropping a spot is curious. Two teams that were ranked higher than the Browns last week, the Jets and Redskins, both lost and dropped below 25. Three teams took big jumps, and went ahead of the Browns, based off of wins this week: Giants, Dolphins and Vikings.  The Giants got the biggest boost jumping up 7 spots to #19.

Obviously these rankings have no impact on the Browns season, their play on the field does. We will continue to cover them as they give us insight into how the team is seen nationally.

Where would you rank the Browns today?