In what scenario would the Browns need to miss the playoffs?
Everyone in Cleveland is aware of the stakes for the Browns this Thursday night. If they triumph, Kevin Stefanski’s team will qualify for the playoffs for the second time in four years. They have everything geared up to perform in front of their hometown supporters as well.
If the Browns could pull it off, it would be the fever point of a season characterized by an absurd number of ailments. Nonetheless, it’s important to consider all the scenarios that Cleveland would need to occur in order to miss the playoffs, considering the team’s history of finding ways to lose over the previous 20 years and the fanbase’s overall cautious optimism.
The Browns, who are now the AFC’s number-five seed but are in a close race for the AFC Wild Card, would have to lose to the Jets on Thursday night and then to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 18 in order to miss the playoffs.
After that, the Browns would need to lose to four other teams in order to be eliminated from the tournament altogether.
Another scenario has Houston defeating the Browns if the Steelers, Jaguars, and Bills fulfill their respective roles, and the Colts defeat the Raiders this weekend before falling to the Texans the following week. The head-to-head victory over the Texans is meaningless because the Steelers would eliminate the Browns based on the division record tiebreak, even if Cleveland has the head-to-head tiebreak over Houston.
If things truly went wrong for the Browns over the next two weeks, there are basically five teams that could still defeat them, but it would also require a lot from each of those teams since they have little margin for error.
Cleveland, though, has some wiggle room. There is still a chance to win the division even if the Browns defeat the Dolphins and Steelers and the Ravens, who just defeated the 49ers in a dramatic victory on Christmas, prevail. In such a scenario, the Browns would also secure the top seed in the AFC.