Cleveland Browns projected to have losing season and next to no shot at Super Bowl

The Cleveland Browns are not expected to have a good season.

A lot of Cleveland Browns faithful believe wholeheartedly that the team is going to be good this year, dare I say great. The thoughts of playoff success and Super Bowls are dancing around in a lot of people’s heads. They think because they have Deshaun Watson, once one of the best players in the game and now, an unknown commodity, that the team can overcome mostly mediocre offseason moves this year.

The national media doesn’t hold the same space for the Browns. According to new projections by ESPN, not only are the Browns not likely to make or win a Super Bowl, just a 1.2% chance, but they’re not expected to have a winning season either. Right now they are projected to win 8.7 games this year, which when you round up, could see them win nine games.

That’s a winning record, but if they’re on the wrong side of that projection, that’s a losing season. ESPN’s projections for the Browns aren’t great. They have just a 38.5% to make the playoffs, and a 14% chance to win the division. The rest of the stats don’t help improve the mood any.

Are the ESPN projections fair to the Cleveland Browns?

I know a lot of fans aren’t going to like the idea of the Cleveland Browns having a losing record, especially with how much Watson’s contract will cripple the team in 2024, but the projections seem fair considering the holes on the team and the talent or lack thereof, brought in this offseason to try and bolster the squad.

Not every move was a bad one, the Browns did a great job upgrading their defensive line, but the safety position is still pretty rough. And the sad thing is, the talent they brought in to bolster the safety position, Juan Thornhill, is, according to advanced analytics, no better than the man he’s replacing in John Johnson III.

The Browns, like the rest of the NFL, do not just take projections as gospel, however. The games still need to be played and the Browns can prove the projections wrong. And they very well might, but to say the projections are being unfair to the Browns isn’t accurate. Most of the moves the team made included guys who are unknown commodities. Just as likely to succeed as otherwise.

So yes, it’s fair to say the Browns’ projections are accurate, at least from what we’ve seen from these guys in previous years. Get back to us a few weeks into the season.