@loyalty said:

Any hopes for the playoffs... even the 6th seed will mean Cleveland needs to pull off at least 3 division wins, probably 4. Gotta hope for those important home wins over division foes and hopefully a sweep of Cinci.

Well most prognosticators have said that the AFC is essentially already decided because it is a conference of haves and have nots.

They have already got 4 teams guaranteed to be in: Pats, Jets, Steelers, Ravens....which takes up all the WC spots.

The only questions were who wins the South and the West.

The Chargers have been the betting favorites in the West. After all, this is the team that was #1 in the NFL in offense and #1 in the NFL in defense last year, yet didn't make the playoffs (to me, that is an indictment of their HC).

In the South, most thought it would be a race between Indy and Texas. Now with Manning out, Texas seems to have the inside track.

So, even though I said it is possible that the Browns could make the playoffs, it is true that they would have to leapfrog one of the "Big 4" teams: Rats, Squeelers, Jets, Pats.

@the-gipper said:

Remember this: the rest of the AFC North also plays essentially this same schedule, so if it is a "cream puff" schedule for the Browns it will also basically be one for the Steelers and Ravens as well.

Any hopes for the playoffs... even the 6th seed will mean Cleveland needs to pull off at least 3 division wins, probably 4. Gotta hope for those important home wins over division foes and hopefully a sweep of Cinci.

@halfbreed216 said:

Found this on Grantland.com Hope this guys right about our season........

BROWNS (-6.5) over Bengals

Had there been a full offseason, I would have wondered about Cincy's sleeper potential because of its sneaky-good defense, A.J. Green and the salient question, "Can Andy Dalton REALLY be that much worse than Carson Palmer these past two seasons?" But getting Dalton and Green ready in seven weeks? Please. Meanwhile, remember this about sleepers: Since 2003, we've had at least one playoff team every year that jumped 5-plus wins in the standings.8 I keep staring at the Browns as a pure schedule pick: they go Cincy, at Indy (no Manning), Miami, Tennessee, BYE, at Oakland, Seattle, at San Fran, at Houston, St. Louis, Jacksonville and at Cincy in their first 11 games — can you bake a bigger creampuff than that??? — followed by a brutal next four (Baltimore, at Pittsburgh, at Arizona and Baltimore), then a Possibly Resting Everybody Steelers in Week 17.

Even if it's weird to think of Colt McCoy and Peyton Hillis playing a wild-card game, fast-forward to next summer: Who will be next year's horseshoe team (as in "They're going to regress, the only reason they made last year's playoffs was because of their schedule and some lucky breaks")? Feels like the Browns, right? Can't you see Bill Barnwell writing 1,200 angry words next July about how much the 2012 Browns are going to suck? (You know, assuming Barnwell doesn't die in Vegas within the next 10 months?) Relatively Bold Prediction No. 7: The Browns will be one of our two 2011 sleepers and sneak out a wild card ahead of Baltimore

Remember this: the rest of the AFC North also plays essentially this same schedule, so if it is a "cream puff" schedule for the Browns it will also basically be one for the Steelers and Ravens as well.