Browns Firmly In Top 10 Across Week 11 National Power Rankings

The Browns firmly established themselves as one of the top teams in the AFC with their Week 10 win over the Ravens, and power rankings around other national outlets are starting to reflect that recognition.

Cleveland is firmly a Top 10 team in the NFL in the Week 11 roundup of power rankings, including the latest list from Sports Illustrated’s Connor Orr, who has them pegged at No. 9.

The Browns continued to move up in Orr’s rankings, but he’s not quite ready to pronounce that QB Deshaun Watson has turned the corner after igniting the Browns’ come-from-behind win with a perfect second half in which he completed all 14 of his pass attempts for 134 yards and a touchdown.

“I’m not quite there with a few people who I’ve seen describe this as a watershed moment for Watson. I think he made three really good throws on an injured body in the second half, which barely managed to negate a pick-six and an overall abhorrent first half. All that said, it really doesn’t seem to matter as the Browns continue to overcome their offense with a steady running game and a Defensive Player of the Year-worthy performance from Myles Garrett.”

Watson’s deserves plenty of credit for fueling the Browns to the 33-31 win, but he did begin the game at an especially poor rate, going just 1-for-9 in the first quarter — his lowest completion percentage (11 percent) in a quarter in his career — and 6-for-20 overall in the first half. That made his ability to rebound in the second half, and doing it while playing through an ankle injury, nothing short of remarkable.

The Browns can be an especially dangerous team if Watson begins to play cleaner football through a full four quarters, but they’ve been finding ways to win regardless of the efficiency of their QB play all season.

Nearly all national outlets are taking notice.

ESPN - No. 8

The Athletic - No. 5

NFL.com - No. 9

Pro Football Talk - No. 9

The Ringer - No. 10

CBS Sports - No. 7

Bleacher Report - No. 8

Sporting News - No. 8