KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Cleveland Browns could have beaten the Chiefs last year, in the playoffs, and then everything we’re talking about in the football world would be so different. This is easy to miss, tempting to dismiss. For a lot of reasons.
The most obvious: The Chiefs beat the Browns, 22-17, and did not lose until an offensive line on life support met a pass rush on superpowers in the Super Bowl.
Other reasons: Patrick Mahomes’ only playoff losses are against a seven-time Super Bowl-champion quarterback, he missed the last 20 minutes with concussion symptoms and, let’s just be real here ... it’s the Browns.
The Browns spent years making themselves easy to dismiss.
But more recently they have made themselves into something else — perhaps the AFC’s most serious threat to the Chiefs.
“The Browns and Chiefs are definitely neck and neck, for sure,” Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said over the summer.
At the time, the words could be taken with more than a few grains of salt. Kelce is a people pleaser, and he’s fiercely proud of growing up near Cleveland. He was speaking at Browns receiver Jarvis Landry’s charity event
This comes up as the Chiefs prepare for their season opener against the Browns at Arrowhead Stadium next weekend, and maybe this is us getting a head start on the hype machine.
The Chiefs’ schedule is loaded, with games against all but two of the six teams behind them in ESPN’s preseason power rankings.
The Chiefs host the Bills on a Sunday night in October that will justifiably be hyped as one of season’s most anticipated games. Same with the Packers in November, and a road game against the Ravens on Sunday night in Week 2. The Chargers are emerging as the most credible challenger to the Chiefs’ five-going-on-six-year grip on the AFC West.
Games against the Titans and Cowboys will also be particularly interesting, and if any of these are your most anticipated of the season we won’t argue the point with much passion.
But the Browns could very well be the Chiefs’ opponent in the next AFC Championship Game.
The Chiefs beat the Bills twice last season and neither game was particularly close. They’ve beaten the Ravens in each of Mahomes’ three seasons as a starter. It should not be lost that Andy Reid is 15-6 coaching against his former assistants.
The Browns are on the come, and they’ll have the first NFL Sunday’s marquee game to show it.
Let’s go back to the divisional playoff game. The Browns took the ball at their own 20 with 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
“There’s a gleam,” Tony Romo had said on the broadcast, and he wasn’t talking about the Chiefs.
The Browns trailed 19-3 at halftime but scored on consecutive drives that covered a combined 152 yards in 26 plays — most of it on the ground.
Mahomes was off the field and the Browns had something rare — possession in the fourth quarter of a playoff game against the Chiefs with a chance to take the lead.
The Browns made a first down, which is when Romo called it “the drive of (Mayfield’s) life” ... and that’s when it unraveled: a first-down run stuffed, a second-down screen wrecked and a third-down pass ruined by Chris Jones pressuring Mayfield and former Chief Kareem Hunt bobbling the reception.
The Browns punted, the Chiefs drained clock, Andy Reid went for it on fourth down and Chad Henne kneeled out the final seconds.
The better team won, but it was the best that any AFC team has played the Chiefs in the postseason since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
The Browns are dangerous. Mayfield sees a talented group of playmakers on every dropback, and two lead backs behind one of the league’s best offensive lines give the Browns the ability to limit possessions — the Chiefs had eight in that playoff game, compared to a season average of just over 10.
Cleveland’s defense continues to be built around Myles Garrett, one of the league’s premier pass rushers, and Denzel Ward, one of its best young cornerbacks. They upgraded their secondary and defensive line in the offseason with a group that can play different styles and positions.
There are red flags, too, of course. The Browns were outscored last season and made the playoffs for the first time since 2002 in the last week of the season, with a two-point win over a Steelers team that was both running on fumes and resting many of its best players.
Mayfield cut back on his interceptions last season but still rated somewhere below great and above mediocre in most measurements. Is that really the quarterback who can beat Mahomes?
Maybe not. But we’ve seen Josh Allen have two tries. Lamar Jackson has had three.
The Chiefs are the prohibitive AFC favorites, and for good reason. Maybe this is all futile and the truth is that nobody will emerge as a serious challenger. Maybe the Chiefs are just too good. That is possible, and perhaps even likely.
But the Browns are positioned to be their most dangerous threat. They’ll have a chance to show it next weekend, which we’ll remember the week before the playoff rematch.
