DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Are the Browns SB Contenders?

If we actually make it to the SB, downtown will look like Ancient Greece with all the statues.

NOW we are officially Super Bowl contenders! Tonight this defense had some serious "badassery" and played inspired ball. We climbed a mountain of reasons to roll over and lose. This team has been an inspiration for our fans. Think for a moment about what "next man up" has meant this season thus far. Elf in The Land, y'all. Go, Browns!

This team is Super Bowl contenders, but they must stop turning the ball over in the playoffs!!!

I can truthfully say that the rest of the AFC contenders (Baltimore, Miami, Buffalo, KC, Jacksonville) probably would not want to see us below them on the bracket.

It has now been determined..."the Browns are playoff contenders..."

Are the Browns Super Bowl Contenders..?...

..."yet to be determined"..

BUT, I will add, now that the Browns have punched their ticket to the playoffs, the Browns chances of playing in a Super Bowl are just as good as any other team that qualifies for the playoffs..!

When I look at the other AFC teams, I think we truly can beat each one of them. I think Buffalo might pose the biggest problems and Miami's offense is dynamite ... but we still could beat them

SB? No, imo.

As others have already posted, we CAN NOT turn the ball over as much as we have.

The margin for error is extremely slim. Going into the playoffs, I agree we can hang with most AFC teams. But, we can't have these turnovers.

As has been proven, we can overcome most of the injuries, but not leaving the opponent with short fields in the playoffs.

I think Divisional Round is a reasonable expectation. The defense can't bail us out all the time. We'll be on the road, and that's seems to be a difference so far.

I like to buy into the Team of Destiny thing (and I am now a believer in Flacco, though not so much at first), but the realist in me believes our high-powered offense can only go so far with the trouble we've been having with turnovers. And we'll have to keep putting a lot of points on the board. Plus, I'm not sure I trust our new kicker in the clutch.

I'm am excited as anybody else though.

Not only have they clinched a playoff spot but no worse than the five slot, and only b/c they didn't win the div over Baltimore but the Browns have a better record than the AFC west div leader and the afc south div leader.

The Browns even the game prior had secured a place above Cincinniati, above Denver, the raiders, chargers, unless they'd win their div, which they won, ... above the jets, above the pats, above the titans
and after beatin the Jets have secured a clinch of a playoff spot #five or the div. win,
over the steelers, over the bills,
over both of whichever two don't win the afc south of the jaguars, colts and texans < one of which will likely face the Browns in the opening round,
and only by the '2nd place in your div if a three way tie among teams with an = w/L/ record rule keeping either of them alive and the Browns as not yet clinching a berth until they could secure a 2nd place in the afc north over Pittsburgh keeping any chance of putting the Browns back at 8th or ninth place in the conference,

The Browns playoff game will likely be at the Jaguars, <no
or at the Colts < My bet of who it'll be,
or the texans,? c'mon, slim chance
or at the Chiefs if they win and finish behind the Colts or jags
or... bills and dolphins

I’m hoping for a win or two in the playoffs. But I honestly don’t think we’re going through Baltimore and winning.

They are the best team playing right now as hard as that is to say. That bastage QB over there is league MVP and unstoppable. He just is.

I am loving the Flacco storyline as much as anybody and the idea of him going into Baltimore to advance to the SB is such a fun idea. I just can’t imagine beating Lamar in Baltimore.

I hate the Rats.

yeah we aren't contenders this year as built, we aren't even the same team that beat BAL.. I think they beat us by 3+ tds if we play them as of right now.. But if some how we see them in the conference champ game then who knows.. Maybe that would be the icing on a storybook season but I think we are too thin everywhere and Baltimore is playing better than they have in 10 years.. I don't think anyone is beating them or even staying close to them..But there isn't another team in the playoffs I don't think the browns can't beat, problem is the one that is stands in the way of a super bowl. We haven't really played anyone special these last few games, with more injuries mounting, its going to be vital that some of the ones like delpit and oko come back. All i know is second half of the jets game we had 13 yards passing.....for a half..yikes

ouch nvm, saw the bracket and we play baltimore if we win against jax.. Only thing we might be able to capitalize on is them having a week off.

Wouldn’t the rat birds play the lowest seed? If one of the wild cards below us win, then they should play Baltimore in the div round

From the Google machine:
Once you get to the Division round, the same seeding rules apply, with the lowest remaining seed playing the 1 seed (who has automatic home field advantage for the entirety of the Playoffs), the second lowest remaining seed playing the second highest, and so on.

https://www.printyourbrackets.com/images/nflplayoffbracket.pdf


winner of 4/5 seed plays 1 seed in division round, not sure if that changes if a lower seat upsets a higher seed in the lower bracket. I'm assuming its based on the 4/5 seed winner would be the lowest if 2/3 advance as they should

j/c
Are the Browns Super Bowl contenders?

imho, this question has already been answered:
Yes.

They have won their place in the Second Season... with an 11-5 record.
With a season-long locker room policy of: "we're 1-0... let's go get this next one."

They are pros at this in ways that other teams have not been tested. Our "next men up" have placed this team in the playoffs. And once the playoffs land, all bets are off.
One and done.
Against a team that has played 1-0 ball all season.

I don't care what the active team roster looks like right now.
I don't care how many Game One #1's are currently in rehab.
I don't care what the betting odds are for a CLE SB.

I don't care about any of that.
I'm just having the time of my life watching this story spin out. Elves knocked down 11 wins to lock down a ticket to the ball.

Oh, bros- consider this: the '23 Browns locked their playoff berth before the regular season had even played out.


I'm not predicting anything.
I'm asking:

"Why not?"


After everything we've seen... after all the haymakers this team has taken from The Injury Fates...
after dragging Gramps off the couch to blaze a 4-game late-season win streak...
to winning the last 2 games without our ST #1's?


Why not?

As crazy as this season has been, why should we expect the laws of logic, reason, or even physics to start kicking in now?



I am having an absolute blast being a Browns fan this season.
For as long as this season persists, I'm gonna live on the edge of my seat, not worry about the next game, and be thankful that I stuck with'em long enough to cheer like I used to.

This is what being a Browns fan used to feel like all the time.
I'm glad to still be around to feel it again... no matter how this season plays out.

I've finally gotten my wish:
the Cleveland Browns have established a FO/Coaching/locker room culture that is built to compete/excel in the NFL. I can enthusiastically live with that, going forward.


.02

Easiest path for us. Week 18. Mia beats Buff \ Ind beats Hou\ Tenn beats Jax \ Pitt beats Balt. Wild card round. Buff beats Mia \ Pitt beats KC \ Cle beats Jax. Division round. Buff beats Balt \ Cle beats Pitt. Afc championship Cle over Buff. We would be at home for the final 2 games before the SB.

While Miami can be dynamic on offense, they've laid some eggs on the road and have some big injury concerns right now.

IMO Baltimore, Buffalo, and Cleveland are the 3 best teams in the AFC. Having those other two play each other in the divisional round would be ideal

Their Quarterback Got Injured. This NFL Team Got Better.
In a season rife with injuries, the Cleveland Browns lost starter Deshaun Watson and their season looked doomed. Then they signed Joe Flacco and emerged as a Super Bowl contender.

Joe Flacco has Browns fans dreaming of their first Lombardi Trophy. NICK CAMMETT/GETTY IMAGES
By
Andrew Beaton
Follow
Jan. 1, 2024 10:01 am ET




When Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon on his first drive as quarterback of the New York Jets, it wasn’t simply another catastrophe for a woebegone franchise. It also served as a grim omen for the rest of the NFL.

Over the course of the rest of the 2023 season, star quarterbacks that franchises had invested fortunes in continued to go down and to not get back up again. When the likes of the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow and the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins suffered season-ending injuries, their teams’ Super Bowl hopes plummeted instantaneously.

But one team has defied this unfortunate trend and emerged as an even stronger contender. Even more improbably, that same team has one of the league’s most miserable histories at quarterback.

The Cleveland Browns enter the final week of the season having already secured a playoff berth with one of the best records in the entire league. That’s because when they lost Deshaun Watson, the quarterback who they had bet their future on, they found a replacement off the scrap heap who has turned into one of the most unlikely sensations in NFL history.

Joe Flacco, a 38-year-old who once won a title but whose career appeared finished, has Browns fans dreaming of their first Lombardi Trophy.

One way of understanding the playoff picture a week away from the start of the postseason is by looking at which teams have managed to keep their quarterbacks upright. The Baltimore Ravens, who clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC by blowing out the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, rose to the top because Lamar Jackson finally stayed healthy into December. Even the reigning-champion Kansas City Chiefs, who have looked uncharacteristically shaky, won their division and have a shot to win it all because Patrick Mahomes has played every game. The top of the standings this year is essentially a list of teams with healthy passers.

The Browns are a glaring exception. And what makes that especially remarkable is that they invested more than any team in NFL history in a quarterback—only to improve when he went down.

“You think you’re coming into a good situation with a good team and there’s a possibility for this,” Flacco said recently, “but you never quite know.”

When Cleveland traded for Watson from the Houston Texans in 2022, the blockbuster move was especially jarring because of the circumstances. Watson had just sat out the entire 2021 season while he wanted to be traded. At the same time, numerous women had sued him and accused him of sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions.

But that controversy wasn’t reflected in the extraordinary price the Browns paid to acquire him. Leaping at the rare opportunity to acquire a star quarterback still in his 20s, Cleveland dealt three first-round picks as part of a package to Houston—and then followed that up by giving Watson a groundbreaking contract worth a fully guaranteed $230 million over five years.


New York Jets quarterback Trevor Siemian greets Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson. PHOTO: SCOTT GALVIN/REUTERS
It didn’t take long for that to go wrong. The allegations against Watson resulted in an 11-game suspension to start last season, and by the time he returned to the field, he looked rusty and ineffective.

This season, Watson’s performance hardly resembled his heyday, but it was good enough for a club with arguably the best defense in the NFL. In the five games in which he took most of the snaps, Cleveland went 4-1.

Then Watson suffered a season-ending shoulder surgery, leaving the Browns to turn to Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a rookie they had selected in the fourth round of the draft. It quickly became clear he wasn’t the answer. He tossed four interceptions before throwing for a touchdown, and it was apparent that the team needed someone else to keep the offense afloat.

It was an unexpected twist when the Browns turned to Flacco after he spent most of the season on his couch, seemingly headed toward retirement. But what Flacco has done ever since taking over makes something else even more surprising: that nobody else had brought him in.

Flacco, who was under center for the Baltimore Ravens for the majority of his career, spent the past few seasons mostly as a backup for the New York Jets. But the Jets never re-signed him, even after Rodgers got hurt, and instead let a season that began with title hopes unravel behind poor quarterback play.

The Jets were hardly the only team whose fortunes were torpedoed by a hurt quarterback. This was a season when more than a billion dollars of passers were sidelined by injuries—and it has shaped the playoff race. The Los Angeles Chargers turned in a disappointing season while Justin Herbert played through a finger injury, before another finger injury ruled him out for the year. The Bengals’ hopes plunged when Burrow required wrist surgery, and they were officially eliminated from the playoffs Sunday when they lost to Kansas City.


Browns wide receiver Elijah Moore, right, celebrates with tight end David Njoku. PHOTO: SCOTT GALVIN/REUTERS
The Browns, though, are headed to the postseason despite losing Watson. And they are beginning to look more dangerous with Flacco under center than they did before he arrived.

Cleveland has now won four straight games, including Thursday night’s 37-20 shellacking of the Jets, while Flacco has played like a gunslinger capable of beating any team in the postseason. In Flacco’s five starts, he has averaged 323 passing yards and thrown for 13 touchdowns. While his aggressiveness has produced eight interceptions, he has also shown his veteran savviness with a league-low sack rate.

“He’s doing a nice job of playing within himself and playing within the scheme and all those type of things,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said, “but he’s also making plays,”

It’s a rare feeling for a franchise that has often felt cursed, particularly at the quarterback position. But that script flipped entirely this season—because another quarterback calamity prompted them to sign Flacco.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nfl-playoffs-cleveland-browns-joe-flacco-ravens-lamar-jackson-85953567

I would call that bracket non-authoritative.
The #1 seed plays the lowest remaining seed. So, it 8s entirely likely rhat the Ravens will end up pkaying the Bills or someone else and then we play them with Flacco, in Baltimore, for the AFC Championship.

And buffalo could beat the ravens. But if buffalo wins at Miami next week they take the East and the 2 seeding.

Regardless of seeding the Super Bowl is almost certainly going to run thru Baltimore. Best case scenario is they trip up somewhere but likeliest scenario imo is they’re waiting for whoever in the AFC championship game. If we make it that far, I would place zero bets. Man would that be epic. Flacco coming back to Baltimore in the AFC championship? Pffft, crazy talk. This team and this town would be off the hinges

If you handed this script to a room full of Hollywood producers, you'd be laughed out of the room.
But that's just how crazy this season has been. About halfway through the season, I stopped dropping my head into my hands over all the injuries, and looked at the record. Then, I took a moment to look at how that record was achieved. And that's when I just started chuckling at The Football Fates' latest attempt to write a Browns season.

Elves have defied logic, reason, and The Curse to get this far.
And now, they've defied the immutable laws of roster attrition.
So why not? Why not see Flacco, going up against the team that he once represented in countless BAL/CLE beatdowns?

At this point, anything's possible.

Strap in. Wear your seatbelt. Take a firm grip on the handrail. Keep your hands and feet inside the ride until it comes to a full stop.

Members Only content..... which I find interesting as I didn't know you could do that through YouTube.

Ask me again in 22 days.

Answer to topic question-----YES----- anybody in the second season is a SB contender---we have beaten the best---Baltimore and San Francisco ---so, definitely we are legitimate Super Bowl contenders--- praise to WHOLE organization.

A little off topic but watch the Steelers find a way to get in the playoffs

To answer the question of this topic everyone who makes the playoffs is a contender unless or until they are beaten. Only at that point would they no longer be a contender.

Actually, this is a little more than a "no meaning game." First, every game is important especially heading into the playoffs. Coming off a win, even if it does nothing for position, is much more important for the mental state of the players and team than coming into a playoff game following a loss. The other important factor of the game is the potential NFL record that could be attained. If Cincinnati should win, it would be the first time ever in the Super Bowl era and not happened in over 88 years that every team in a division would all finish the regular season with a record over .500. In a year full of accolades, showing the AFC North as the best ever would be fitting and sending a strong message to the rest of the NFL. Just not too confident in the Bengals pulling off the upset of our red-hot Browns.

psst the Bengals are favored by 7 and playing their starters.

The upset will be if the Browns win.

I agree!!! This is one of the first times, realistically, since I became a fan in 2004 where I look at the other playoff teams one at a time and think it is possible for us to beat them. Not just a wish either, a legitimate shot. This team feels like it as "it" and can complete, come back, and fight with any other team in the league. If they all play as one I think anything is possible.

Yes because of their defense.

this didn't age well....

Not until they upgrade the QB and WR positions