How close are the Browns to reaching the Super Bowl?
By STEVE KING
As Super Bowl 55 approaches on Sunday night, the NFL teams not in the game — all those except the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers — try to determine how far away they are from playing in the big game.
After all, making it to the Super Bowl, AND winning it, is the sole goal of these clubs, or at least it should be. If I were an owner and that is not what my people are focusing on this week — and throughout the entire offseason, for that matter — I would have some really hard questions for them, and the answers they give me better darned well be the ones for which I’m looking.
So how about the Browns, who five different times have come within a victory of getting to the Super Bowl, but came up short on every occasion? How close are they to getting to the Super Bowl?
They are within a piece on offense — a speedy, way-down-the-field wide receiver — a collection of pieces at every part of the defense, linemen, linebackers, cornerbacks and safeties, and likely also a kicker.
In one way, that’s not a lot, but in another way, it is. You’re never going to build the perfect team — too many things can, and do, happen to get in the way of that happening — but you try to make it as complete as possible. You attempt to fill as many holes as possible, for the fewer weaknesses, the better chance you have of winning. It’s really that simple.
Can the Browns really expect — should they really expect — to be able to do enough in one offseason to correct their flaws so as to make it to next year’s Super Bowl?
I’m not sure. I think they can — I really do — but I can’t say with conviction that they will. It may be a bit too big of a job for just one season. It may take two years. That would be my guess.
But we’ll see.
The main thing is that the window is open for that to happen in the foreseeable future. The Browns must seize upon it because the window won’t stay open forever. It will close at some point, and usually there’s no warning beforehand of when it will happen. As such, the Browns must work with a sense of urgency, as if the clock is ticking, which it most certainly is
But that’s a discussion for down the road — way down the road, to be sure. It’s not worth our time now.
And really, did anybody really think — even in their wildest dreams — last year at this time, with the fact they were coming off a 6-10 finish, that the Browns would be in this position coming out of the following season?
We all know the answer to that one.
