Off-season thoughts (Vol. IV)

From the department of "Here We Go Again" comes this nasty little soon-to-be-fact . . . 

That wide-open window of opportunity the Browns have enjoyed the last couple of seasons has been slammed shut by the team formerly known as the Bungles.

It took exactly one season for the Cincinnati Bengals to rise to the top of the American Conference after fashioning one of the worst records in 2020. And they did it the hard way -- winning three straight playoff games on the road to reach the ultimate pinnacle in professional football.

While the Browns struggled throughout the 2021 season, the Bengals showed how it could be done with a lesser-talented group than Cleveland from a full-roster standpoint, continuing to find ways to win as they routinely shocked the experts.

The Browns still have the talent that elevates them to competitive level for the next couple of seasons, but they no longer are a team to be reckoned with regard to mounting a challenge to do something they haven't done since returning to the National Fotball League in 1999.

Win the AFC North.

That's got to gall Browns Nation, blindsided by a team practically no one outside Cincinnati believed would, let alone could, pull off a miracle while the Browns licked their wounds after a lackluster 8-9 campaign.

For a while there, in fact as recently as this past season, the Browns were seriously given by many pundits an excellent chance of taking the division en route to even even loftier goals. And then they went out and stupendously underachieved.

The young Bengals are the new king of the block in the division. And they will get even stronger when they get the offensive line straightened out. They are in position now to dominate the North for at least the next five seasons, much like Pittsburgh and Baltimore dominated much of the last two decades.

It's not as though the Browns will slip back again and become annual occupants of the AFC North cellar. The Steelers will be weaker next season following the retirement  of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. And you can count on the Ravens, when healthy, to challenge again.

If Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski stubbornly refuses to change with the times and play aggressive football on both sides of the ball, the Browns and Steelers most likely will battle for the basement on an annual basis for at least a few years.

Face it. The Bengals have way too many weapons and a head coach not afraid to use them. It didn't take long for Joe Burrow to emerge and then rapidly ascend as the best quarterback in the division and it's not even close. With a terrific group of wide receivers and a stronger line, there's no telling how high his ceiling is.

Wouldn't be surprised, though, if more than a few Browns fans believe if the Bengals can do it, why not the Browns? They still have all that talent, right? Talent means nothing -- the Browns proved that big time this past season -- if it is not maximized.

There is no question the Bengals overachieved their way to the Super Bowl in Los Angeles in about 10 days. Even if they lose to the Los Angeles Rams, it will not dampen the fact they accomplished something 30 other National Football League teams did not.

Zac Taylor, who struggled mightily (6-25-1) in his first two seasons as head coach in Cincinnati, has shown the way. Whether Stefanski chooses to play copycat in what is a notorious copycat league very well could determine the Browns' fate in the new season.