Fans who are holding out hope that the Cleveland Browns will make a run to the Super Bowl this season do not have to look far back into the past for inspiration. It may be easy to forget that the New England Patriots won just four games in 2024 before making huge strides with a new head coach and a second-year quarterback to get there the next year.
This is not to say that, coming off a five-win season, Todd Monken will be Mike Vrabel on the sidelines, or Shedeur Sanders can perform like Drake Maye at QB. But drastic turnarounds are common in the NFL, and it is OK for Browns fans to dare to dream.
Analyst Xavier Crocker is making a big prediction about the Browns in 2026, saying that if the offense improves significantly, reaching the AFC Championship Game is not out of the question.
“We don’t know if we’re winning the Super Bowl this year. I’m backtracking on that because we see teams surprise people all the time, and the Browns are on the right trajectory for once. If we had a 20-point-per-game offense, we are a different team. If the Browns score 25 points per game this year, I’m talking division. I’m talking AFC Championship. You’re going to hear it from me,” Crocker said.
Can the Browns be a dark horse to win the AFC? #DawgPound@chefzae23 has a BIG prediction for the 2026 season. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/1JwAGKXgkH
— Honor The Land (@honortheland) May 4, 2026
This is the kind of optimism that surrounds every team in the league in early May. They are coming off an NFL Draft where all of the picks look like future All-Pros, and there hasn’t been a devastating coaching decision, turnover, or penalty to get riled up about.
Nevertheless, Crocker may have a rose-colored point, though he is endorsing Deshaun Watson as the starting quarterback over Sanders, which changes the equation somewhat. When the Browns made the playoffs in 2020, which was their first year with Kevin Stefanski as head coach, they were coming off a 6-10 season. They also reached the postseason in 2023, after going 7-10 the year before.
Granted, the Browns have a long way to go to reach Crocker’s benchmark of scoring 25 points per game. Last season, they averaged 16.4 per contest, which was next-to-last in the NFL, ahead of only the Las Vegas Raiders. The year before, Cleveland was last in the league at 15.2 points per game.
So, if the Browns are counting on their offense to lead a championship-worthy turnaround, they had better hope that their head coach and quarterback are up to the task.
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