Finally, the Cleveland Browns are ranked somewhere this offseason.
It's just not a ranking any Browns fan wants to see or think about, though, especially as other NFL teams struggled just as much as them to find their footing - if not more so.
The team was included in a ranking put out by The Athletic on Wednesday, which was a write up on which NFL teams who struggled in 2024 would be able to bounce back from those struggles, with those atop the list considered most able to make a recovery, and those at the bottom considered teams with a lot of work to do in order to improve upon their 2024 effort.
Cleveland, to probably no one's surprise, was ranked 18 out of 18 on this list.
Cleveland listed as least likely to bounce back from 2024 season in 2025
The report, written up by Mike Jones in The Athletic, has the Browns dead last amongst the losing teams who missed the postseason and would need to seek a recovery in 2025 from just how badly they did in 2024.
"The Browns have a mess on their hands. Deshaun Watson is unlikely to play in 2025 after another Achilles tear, but his restrictive salary-cap hit remains on the books. Cleveland has the No. 2 pick. Should it be spent on a quarterback? Even as Kevin Stefanski likely reclaims play-calling duties of an offense that will have a new coordinator (Tommy Rees) and line coach, this turnaround will take a while," said Jones on his logic for ranking them 18th on the list.
Read more: How should the Cleveland Browns approach the second pick in the 2025 NFL Draft?
The Browns AFC North divisional rivals and fellow Ohio residents, the Cincinnati Bengals, are considered the team with the best odds to recover from their 9-7 season where they barely missed the postseason. The other teams that share the top five picks in the NFL Draft alongside the Browns are on the list, but no one ranks lower than Cleveland.
It's a valid placement. Cleveland has to retain a lot of their current roster because of cap restraints, and they still have to re-sign Nick Chubb to a new deal. They have to hit on their second overall pick, or it'll be yet another indictment against an already foolish-looking front office. And, of course, the Browns have to figure out who their next quarterback will be.
These problems are going to take more than just 2025 to fix. This'll likely be a mess the team carries after 2026, which is when they can actually cut Deshaun Watson on paper and get a ton of cap space back to work with towards reconstructing the franchise. Next season, fans should expect a slightly better team but one unlikely to reach the postseason.