Predicting the Cleveland Browns final 3 games

Week 16 at New York Jets

Here’s another game that has a couple of interesting storylines to watch — and it could have had one more if former Cleveland defensive coordinator Gregg Williams wasn’t recently fired. Even with Williams out, there are some connections between these two teams, and it’s all about the quarterbacks.

In 2018, Cleveland had the No. 1 pick and up until the selection was announced, it seemed as though Sam Darnold was going to be the guy. Sure, there were rumors that Baker Mayfield could be the pick, but then this crazy notion of that being smoke screen was floated — which made no sense considering there was no one ahead of the Browns so they weren’t trying to fool anyone.

Eventually, the selection was announced and Baker Mayfield was the man. That led to the New York Jets taking Sam Darnold at No. 3. But the connection doesn’t stop there.

Mayfield also made his first appearance in an NFL game in Week 3 that season as he replaced an injured Tyrod Taylor. He then led the Browns to their first win in 635 days — in a comeback nonetheless.

Cleveland and the Jets did meet in September of 2019 and it was an ugly 23-3 win for the Browns, but there was no Darnold. That means this will be the rematch between the top two quarterbacks from 2019.

Having said all that, this looks to be a one-sided affair. Poor Darnold has nearly no talent around him and head coach Adam Gase seems to be the perfect guy to guarantee they remain winless and land Trevor Lawrence. They then need to get someone else to coach Lawrence.

Prediction:  Cleveland 42, New York 16
Record: 11-4