Cleveland Browns officially eliminated from playoff contention, but there’s always next year
The Cleveland Browns are now mathematically eliminated from postseason contention with the Denver Broncos loss to the Los Angeles Chargers today after having a historic 2020 season which included a playoff appearance and win.
The Cleveland Browns have been one of the league’s most disappointing teams in the 2021-22 season after being expected to be Super Bowl contenders before the season.
Well, it is now safe to say that they are officially not contenders and were, in fact, pretenders. Now, in Week 17 the franchise is now forced to look towards the offseason as they were officially eliminated from playoff contention thanks to wins by the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers.
While the Browns went through their struggles with the injury and the COVID-19 bugs, they have nobody to blame but themselves. They were in a whopping 10 one-possession games when the clock struck triple zeroes but were unfortunately on the losing end of half of them.
It’s unknown at this point what Cleveland’s number one priority will be or what will happen in the offseason but it is safe to say that the team will consider finding a new quarterback and wide receiver but either way, it will certainly be exciting for fans as we ramp up our annual draft talk.
It is unfortunate for the Browns that they couldn’t click on both sides of the football. Towards the beginning of the year, the team was producing on the offensive side of the ball while the defense struggled to stop the opponent. As the season progressed, the defense improved dramatically while the offense struggled more and more.
Nevertheless, the Browns will still head to Pittsburgh for a battle with the Steelers on Monday Night Football in a “pride” game for the Browns. If the team needed some motivation, as Jadeveon Clowney said this week, “let’s send him [Ben Roethlisberger] out the right way” as the Steelers quarterback prepares for his final game at Heinz Field.
As Browns fans have been way too used to saying though, “there’s always next year”.