It's crazy how much things can change in just a couple of weeks. Everything happens too fast in the NFL, and a team that looked like a Super Bowl contender on Sunday might not even be a playoff hopeful on Monday morning.
That's why it's not much of a surprise to see recency bias take a big toll on the Cleveland Browns' spot in Jason La Canfora's latest NFL power rankings.
It is, however, disappointing to discover that all the rave and buzz around Todd Monken's team may not have been real.
While the Browns deserve to stumble a couple of spots after an ugly loss to the New York Jets, watching them drop from No. 12 to No. 23 in FanSided's rankings feels a touch disrespectful.
"That could prove to be a really bad loss at the Jets. We buy this Browns defense, which is no small thing," La Canfora wrote. "But sustaining a modicum of success is something that has eluded this franchise for so long, and we had to ding them for following up the upset over the Steelers with this stinker."
FanSided's NFL power rankings show no one was ready to truly believe in the Browns
See? They're not even talking about what's happening this season, but about how they've fared in the past.
Fair, the Browns haven't been the best team at keeping their foot on the gas, but what does anything that happened prior to the start of the Monken era have to do with this team?
The Browns have a new coaching staff, multiple rookie and second-year starters, and a new offense. Why fixate on what has gone wrong in previous years instead of what they're doing now?
There are more than enough legitimate reasons to second-guess the Browns' hot start to 2026, but their track record definitely isn't one of them. Last I checked, KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston weren't here last year. Harold Fannin Jr. and Carson Schwesinger didn't get here until the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Browns deserve to be held accountable for this loss. Concepcion's injury in the first half changed everything, and the weather was terrible. Losing starting right tackle Tytus Howard was also a big blow, but the fact of the matter is that they came in with a questionable game plan and didn't get the job done.
Recency bias is a big part of NFL discourse, and teams are only as good as they looked this week. But why can't this team get the benefit of the doubt for a change? How are they three spots below the 2-3 Dallas Cowboys, 2-3 Philadelphia Eagles, and 3-1-1 New York Giants?
Even worse, the 1-4 Houston Texans? How are the Texans the 15th-best team in the league after beating the 0-5 Tennessee Titans? The Browns can't get a pass for losing a road game in a monsoon?
This isn't anything new. The Browns have always had to go against the other team, their own self-destructive tendencies, and league-wide perception.
It's up to Todd Monken and company to turn doubters into believers.
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