Browns: 2021 NFL season schedule benefits Cleveland greatly

The Browns now know when and where they’ll be playing in 2021.

The Browns may have the 9th hardest schedule on paper but the Brownies are going to do anything but struggle against the teams they’re facing. We already know that the Chiefs are up first on Week 1 in Kansas City.

Then in weeks two and three, the Browns are home against the Texans and Bears.

Week four starts two games away, with games in Minnesota against the Vikings and Los Angeles against the Chargers. Then a three-game home-stand from Week 6 to Week 8 that will see the Cardinals, Broncos, and Steelers all visit Cleveland.

After that it’s two away in Weeks 10 and 11 for the Patriots and Lions in New England and Detroit respectively, followed by the Ravens away in Week 12, the Browns bye week, and then the Ravens at home in Cleveland for Week 14. The Raiders continue the homestead in Week 15, with the Packers and Steelers being the last away games of the year.

Finally, the season finale is at home against the Bengals in the first-ever Week 18 game in Browns’ history.

Some 2021 NFL Schedule takeaways

Cleveland has a deceptively easy schedule. We’re going to go into more detail later in a follow-up article, but Cleveland really only has four or five expected playoff teams to compete with. The Browns are listed as having the 9th hardest schedule of the year, but with the circumstances surrounding several key teams, that may not be an honest evaluation of the difficulty of the schedule.

"Source: CBS Sports.com1. Steelers: 155-115-2 (.574)2. Ravens: 152-118-2 (.563)3. Bears: 149-122-1 (.550)4. Packers: 147-124-1 (.542)5. Vikings: 144-127-1 (.531)T-6. Bengals: 144-128 (.529)T-6. Lions: 143-127-2 (.529)8. Raiders: 142-128-2 (.526)9. Browns: 140-130-2 (.518)10. Rams: 140-132 (.515)"

Another interesting note is that both teams that Paul Brown are attached to historically, the Browns and Bengals, will close out the first-ever Week 18 game against one another. It’s rather fitting that the new era of NFL football will include the sons of Brown taking on one another.

The Browns also have three prime-time games. One on Thursday, against the Broncos at home in Week 7 (Oct. 21, 2021), another on the road for a Sunday night game against the Ravens in Week 12 (Nov. 28, 2021), and the last against the Steelers, on the road, on Monday night (Jan. 3, 2022).

This could be a huge year for the Browns, and it all starts on Sept. 12 against the Chiefs.