A title or bust for Browns in next four seasons

By STEVE KING

Four years.

That’s right, four years.

That the Browns the other day signed star running back Nick Chubb to a three-year. $36.6 contract extension, meaning they now control his rights for the next four seasons, is a clear indication that they’re going all in to win a Super Bowl during that time.

Indeed, the three years added to the 2021 season, keeping Chubb with the Browns for four seasons, through 2024, was not done randomly. It’s the time the Browns believe all of their talented young players, such as Chubb, will grow and mature and give the club its best chance to get that elusive first trip to the Super Bowl, and to win it, since the Bernie Kosar era of the last half of the 1980s.

Teams don’t often come out and announce their core beliefs and expectations in such a bold, direct manner, but it’s clear that’s what it is when they make decisions like this one.

Those aforementioned Browns of the 1980s did the same thing in lining up all their young talent in such a way that they came of age at the same time.

When the Indians recently made a couple trades and announced that Terry Francona, the best manager in the game, would miss the rest of the year while he attended to some serious health issues, they were, without saying it, running up the white flag on their 2021 season.

Conversely, when the Cavaliers, after LeBron James resigned with them  in 2014, began adding all kinds of veteran players whose skill sets complemented that of James, they were sending a message that they were concentrating fully on winning the NBA title. And they got it in 2016.

Now the Browns want the same. So, look then for quarterback Baker Mayfield, another young star who plays the most important position in team sports, to sign an extension sooner rather than later, locking him in for that time frame.

Buckle your seatbelt, Browns fans; title or bust for Browns

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