Cleveland Browns: 5 reasons 2020 season is a success, playoffs or not

1. Ahead of schedule

Given where the Browns are (or at least should be) in their current “rebuild”, 2020 was supposed to the season where the team fixes some issues from 2019 and starts learning how to win games again before taking a big step forward in 2021.

However, the dramatic improvement that Mayfield has shown over the second half of the season has sped things up quite a bit. At full strength, Cleveland’s offense has the ability to hang with anyone, which is why getting into the playoffs this season is so important. The Browns went from owning the tenth overall pick to being a legitimate playoff team, as evidenced by their domination of the Tennessee Titans in Week 13 and close loss to the Ravens in Week 14.

The defense is what’s holding this team back, and that side of the ball will be addressed this offseason. But the fact that the Browns have won this many games and are in position to make the playoffs as long as they take care of business against Rudolph is impressive given how bad the defense is.

If Cleveland does win on Sunday and qualifies for the postseason, expectations in 2021 will be very high, and this time, they’ll actually be justified.