Where are Browns in Power Rankings Around the League?

Get ready for your weekly NFL Power Rankings as they come in from media outlets across the league. Many seem too low on the Browns as all of the analysis seems centered on one player.

The expectations for the Cleveland Browns have varied widely from analysts and media outlets nationally. As we have officially entered week-one of the NFL season let’s take a look at where the Browns rank in some of the most popular and respected power rankings across the league and break down what to make of it.

NFL Network- 18th

Pro Football Network-17th

Fox Sports - 17th

33rd Team- 18th

Pro Football Talk- 22nd

USA Today-13th

CBS Sports-9th

To be fair, some of these rankings are written by one writer and shouldn’t be considered an opinion of the entire outlet. When we dig deeper into the analysis though, one theme quickly emerges. 

It’s clear that they are all hinging the Browns season on the performance of Deshaun Watson. I also believe ultimately that the Browns will go as far as Watson can lead them. The difference though is in what I think the floor is. Even in a worst case scenario if we were to get the same Watson we saw over the last six games, the floor should be .500, as we went 3-3 over that stretch of games.

Not to mention the massive upgrades we made on defense and the added weapons on offense. Many aren’t taking into consideration that Head Coach Kevin Stefanski has worked to evolve his offensive system to better suit Watson’s strengths.

For example, Watson thrived in his time with Houston out of empty set formations. The Browns were bottom five in the league last year snapping the ball out of the empty formation before Watson returned from his suspension. So far this preseason with Watson on the field they have snapped it out of empty roughly 25% of the time.

To me the floor for this team should be the playoffs and the ceiling can be as high as Watson takes them including a Super Bowl run.