The Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos share a dubious honor

The Denver Broncos lost their Thursday night game to the Indianapolis Colts, putting them in rare company with the Cleveland Browns.

The Cleveland Browns didn’t play on Thursday night, but you wouldn’t know that if you watched the Browns in 2017. The team wasn’t very good that year. Why would I say such a thing? Well, that was when the team went 0-16, so it’s pretty easy to say they were trash. It makes sense that version of the team would have a terrible footnote in NFL history.

What is surprising is that the Denver Broncos and the Browns now share that honor, presumably with a few other teams in NFL history. The Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts went into overtime on Thursday night, with neither team having scored a touchdown across four quarters.

Overtime didn’t end any differently, as the Broncos ended up blowing their chance at a tie, and losing 12-9. Sadly, though, the Broncos weren’t the first team, or even the first team in the last decade (though the first team in this decade), to lose a game like that.

The Browns lost a game, 12-9, to the Tennessee Titans in 2017, and if you’re repeating the mistakes the Browns have made in that dubious year, you are in serious trouble.

The Cleveland Browns had a reason to lose that game, the Denver Broncos didn’t

Prior to this year, I would’ve said Russell Wilson was a sure-fire Hall of Famer. Now, I don’t know. He’s got a nice resume, sure but if this is how he plays for the rest of his career, then at best he’s a borderline player. Regardless, the Broncos should be better than they are offensively.

The Browns in 2017 played with Deshone Kizer and Cody Kessler and they still almost won a game or few. The Broncos have Wilson, a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. The fact the Broncos had the same outcome as a winless Browns team should really scare everyone in Denver right now.

The Broncos are just a bad team and made worse by a quarterback playing far below his potential and salary. The Browns were supposed to be bad, but the Broncos weren’t. So if Cleveland fans can take solace in anything from that 2017 season, at least that team wasn’t as disappointing as the 2022 Denver Broncos.