Pressure on Cleveland Browns to contend for Super Bowl in 2021

After decades of being a laughingstock, the Cleveland Browns are coming off a high-water mark. Now, they have their sights set on the Super Bowl.

Last season, the Browns went into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers. That’s news in its own right, but happening in the AFC Wild Card round? Break out the champagne.

For Cleveland, it was its first playoff win since 1994, breaking the longest draught in the NFL outside of the Detroit Lions (1991) and Cincinnati Bengals (1990). Now, after going 11-5 and eventually being ousted by the Kansas City Chiefs, the Browns are trying to keep moving towards the upper crust of the league.

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For that to happen, Cleveland should think big in the AFC North. The division, created as part of realignment in 2002, has eluded the Browns, who have never earned the crown. Despite last year’s success, the Browns finished third behind Pittsburgh and the Baltimore Ravens.

Should Cleveland scale that challenge, eyes then turn to the Chiefs. Kansas City has won the AFC in each of the past two seasons, and knocked the Browns out of the postseason in January.

Speaking of Kansas City, its star tight end, Travis Kelce, had some encouraging words for Browns fans recently.

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Kelce, who grew up in the greater Cleveland area, talked about the Browns in glowing terms over the weekend while at receiver Jarvis Landry’s charity event, per the Akron Beacon Journal:

“They’re definitely a contender, without a doubt. It’s definitely there. Baker [Mayfield] and the gang have upped the ante, made this team an unbelievable team and a team you have to prepare for and take serious. I think that moving forward without a doubt, I can see a lot more playoff games between us, and I’ll just take it one day at a time and hope for it. I think the Browns and Chiefs are definitely neck and neck.”

In a football town with grand expectations, the Browns will be under the microscope. Much of the pressure falls on fourth-year quarterback Baker Mayfield and second-year head coach Kevin Stefanski, a pairing many on the banks of Lake Erie hope will lead Cleveland back to long lost glory.