CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns will not return to the playoffs this season. That outcome became official Sunday evening when the Chargers defeated the Broncos, ending any hopes of the Browns entering the playoffs as a wild card. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Cleveland Browns will not return to the playoffs this season

  • The Browns have not qualified for back-to-back playoffs since the 1980s

  • The Browns are currently in last place in the AFC North, a spot many experts believed would belong to the Cincinnati Bengals this year

  • Two games remain on the Browns’ schedule — at Pittsburgh on Monday and home against Cincinnati Jan. 9

Earlier on Sunday, the Browns were eliminated from the division title chase as the Bengals defeated the Chiefs and claimed their first AFC North crown since 2015. 

The Browns have not gone to the playoffs in back to back seasons since the club’s run of five consecutive playoff appearances from 1985-89. Since the franchise returned to Cleveland in 1999, the Browns have only made the playoffs twice. 

This year’s Browns squad entered the season with high expectations. Sports Illustrated pegged the Browns as the preseason AFC North favorites. The magazine also predicted the Bengals would win just three of 17 games this season. ESPN projected that the AFC North would be between the Ravens and Browns.

And going into Week 15, the then 7-6 Browns had some hope of making the playoffs and playing for a division title. Then a massive COVID-19 outbreak befouled the team. The outbreak forced the team to compete against the Raiders with a third-string quarterback and a litany of backups at many positions. 

The Browns managed to take a fourth quarter lead against the Raiders, but fell 16-14. Five days later on Christmas, the Browns lost another tight contest, this one to the Packers 24-22. 

Although the Browns have been effective on defense and running the ball, the club’s passing game has struggled this year. Quarterback Baker Mayfield has battled an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. The injury has forced the quarterback to wear a harness all year. 

Mayfield threw four interceptions in Cleveland’s loss to Green Bay. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has continued to express confidence in his quarterback.

“When you are talking about the quarterback and the quarterback’s statistics or numbers, it takes 11 guys,” Stefanski said. “It takes all of us to do our job to be productive in the pass game. We often talk about precision in the pass game, and that goes through all 11 players – it is protection, it is the routes, it is the throwing and all of those things.”

The Browns still have two more games to play, starting with the Monday Night Football matchup against the Steelers. When he last spoke to the media on Friday, Stefanski wouldn’t speculate how Sunday’s results would affect his lineup decisions for Monday’s game. 

“We are not going to waste time and energy on things that are out of our control,” Stefanski said on Friday when the Browns still had a small chance of making the playoffs. 

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