Well, that's a little better

General Manager Andrew Berry inched closer to his goal of redoing the Browns' defense Thursday with  another signing for what is becoming a crowded seconddary.

Former Ohioan (born in Youngstown) Troy Hill joins ex-Los Angeles Rams teammate John Johnson III with Cleveland after agreeing to a four-year contract averaging $6 million a season. The four-year veteran is expected to play slot corner. 

Inside linebacker Anthony Walker, another four-year vet with the Indianapolis Colts, was in Berea Thursday as the Browns seek to upgrade middle linebacker. Walker's aggressive downhill style of defense would be a perfect fit.

Berry also was active on the offensive side of the ball, resigning wide receiver Rashard Higgins and return specialist JoJo Natson to one-year deals, lessening the possibility of taking a wide receiver in the college draft next month.

Unless some general manager around the National Football League offers Berry a deal he can't refuse for Odell Beckham Jr., it appears the wide receivers room is just about set for 2021 with Jarvis Landry, KhaDarel Hodge, Higgins and Donovan Peoples-Jones.

The defense is starting to come together as well, particularly in the back end with Berry throwing as many cornerback darts at the board as he can. The uncertain physical status of Greedy Williams no doubt is the reason he is loading up at the position.

If he is somehow able to get Walker under contract, along with the renewal of veteran Malcolm Smith's contract, the back seven appears to be in decent shape. Now all he has to do to finish the job is find at least two defensive linemen, most notably Myles Garrett's partner in crime on the other side of the line.

Berry was fiscally tied in knots for the top tier of quarterback punishers and had to settle for Takkarist McKinley, who immediately received a supportive nod from head coach Kevin Stefanski after the one-year, prove-it deal was announced.

"Takk is a skilled young player with tremendous upside," he said via a club statement. "We like his pass rush ability and the way he's gotten after the quarterback throughout his young career. Defensive line was a position . . . we wanted to address during free agency and we are excited to add Takk and the impactful tools he possesses to the group that will help make the plays we need along the line." 

First of all, I equate the word "upside" with "potential". Essentially, veteran players saddled with either of those nouns are not good. But from a public relations standpoint, coaches cannot say that. Too negative. They choose the more positive "upside" and "potential."

McKinley has banked four years in the NFL with just 17.5 sacks. His consistent inconsistency has been a career lowlight. There is no "upside" with him unless you take into consideration his age (25). Upside lasts just so long. His upside has been on the downside for a couple of seasons.

Meanwhile, it's interesting Berry is issuing multi-year deals for the secondary now after going cheap back there last season and ultimately paying a heavy price. The stability and vast increase in talent should be enough to justify the fiscal moves.

As mentioned before, the addition of Johnson gives defensive coordinator Joe Woods many more options with his three-safety look, assuming, of course, the healthy return of Ronnie Harrison Jr. and Grant Delpit.

Addressing the defensive line, more probable than possible for Berry in either the draft or trade route, should complete the task as his team is getting not only better, but younger. Reuniting Johnson and Hill is more than just a promising start.

Only a little splash

That's it? 

While numerous National Football League teams jumped into the free-agent waters, the Browns have found them a little too chilly to do big business. Certainly not like a year ago when General Manager Andrew Berry made a big splash.

Maybe too much was expected this season, not taking into consideration the Browns' salary-cap haul was nowhere near as much as 2020. It tied Berry's hands often, especially at positions that badly needed help on defense.

Getting safety John Johnson III the first day was a terrific start. And then everything screeched to a halt in the next 24 hours because it seemed as though half the league's teams sought edge rushers. The Browns could not compete fiscally.

The  top tier of the field disappeared one by one, teams paying ridiculous amounts of money. The Browns could only watch. 

As they scratched off the names on their list, others with not nearly as much talent crept their way up to the top. And that's when the Browns dove in Tuesday afternoon, emerging with the nondescript Takkarist McKinley.

In yet another one of his prove-it deals that helped form a major portion of the defense last season, Berry convinced McKinley's people to agree to a one-year deal worth $4.25 million with a chance to kick it up to $6 million if certain incentives are met. (They won't be.)

McKinley is expected to replace Olivier Vernon opposite Myles Garrett on the defensive line. That is a gigantic step backward, He's no Olivier Vernon. They might similar in size -- each is 6-2 and around 265 pounds -- but that's where the comparisons end. 

Vernon, a 10-year veteran who suffered a ruptured Achilles late last season, is a career playmaker. An overachiever. McKinley, a four-year vet, is a classic underachiever. 

A first-round pick by Atlanta in the 2017 college draft, he posted just 17.5 sacks in his first three seasons before the Falcons waived him early last season. After failing physicals with two other clubs, the Las Vegas Raiders picked him up, ultimately placing him on injured reserve.

The only well-rated edge rushers remaining are Jadeveon Clowney and Haason Reddick. The Browns are reportedly interested in Clowney, but probably will have to take a pass since his worth is estimated to be around $12-$13 million-a-year, a neighborhood well beyond their checkbook reach. Besides, Clowney is more of a run-stopper than a threat from the edge. 

Reddick is coming off a career season in Arizona with 13 sacks. But five of them were in one game and it's his inconsistency that caused the Cardinals to allow him to test free agency. But at 6-1, 235, he is more a linebacker type.

Right now, it looks as though Berry will have to obtain Garrett's new partner either through the draft or in a trade unless he considers offering another one or two of those one-year deals to aging veterans like Melvin Ingram III, Carlos Dunlap, Justin Houston and Kyle Van Noy.

Solid start

All last season, Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods took all kinds of verbal abuse from the fans for the product he put out there on a weekly basis. A lot of it was warranted.

General Manager Andrew Berry didn't help Woods by going cheap and signing way too many defensive free agents on a prove-it basis. Many were on the down side of their careers. And it showed.

If it hadn't been for the Browns' best offense since the last century, there's no telling how terrible the season would have turned out. All that changed Monday with the opening of National Football League free agency.

Berry, who concentrated (quite successfully) last season on improving the offense via free agency with some solid moves, turned his attention to the defense Monday with a ten strike by agreeing to a three-year, $34 million contract with safety John Johnson III.

Johnson, who won't turn 26 until Christmas time, is a four-year veteran with the Los Angeles Rams and the perfect fit for Woods' 4-2-5 base defense, which generally features three safeties. 

With the return of Grant Delpit, who missed his rookie season with a ruptured Achilles, and Ronnie Harrison, who battled through an injury-plagued season, the deep secondary is beginning to look good. With those two back and healthy and Johnson joining them, Woods now has the tools with which to work.

No more Andrew Sendejo or Karl Joseph or Sheldrick Redwine to run out there and cross your fingers. Games and leads that were lost last season will -- or at least should -- become nothing more than bad memories. 

The 6-0, 210-pound Johnson brings to the Browns the same versatility Delpit and Harrison possess, the ability to comfortably play either safety position. The newest Brown is also a dynamic producer with 119 total tackles in 2018 at strong safety and 105 last season at free safety.

He brings to that side of the football two attributes sadly missing last season from safety -- strong pass coverage and even stronger tackling. How many times last season did fans bemoan blown coverages, especially on third and long, and missed tackles. That will rarely happen this season.

It's the overall kind of versatility in the secondary Woods needs to make his unusual scheme work. He didn't have the talent last season. He does now. 

It's now incumbent on Berry to continue filling in the gaps along the defensive line and linebacker -- especially linebacker -- as he attempts to duplicate his strong 2020 performance with the offense in an effort to produce the best and most balanced Browns team in more than a generation.

He's off a pretty good start with Johnson.

Don't forget about LBs

It was blatantly obvious from the initial game of the 2020 National Football League season that the Browns would have to flat outscore opponents to win because their defense was -- trying to be kind here -- awful. Sorry, I couldn't.

Relying heavily on marginal players with one-year, prove-it deals, that side of the football failed spectacularly. The offense had to rescue their defensive brethren on a weekly basis. Choosing the over in a Browns game on the over/under became a weekly ritual.

It thus became just as obvious that General Manager Andrew Berry, who skillfully crafted what turned out to be a dangerous high-powered offense last season, needs to balance the talent scale by addressing the defense this season.

The big question is just how the GM is going to cobble together what fans hope is the final stage of building an annual contending team. Hopefully, it will not be a repeat of 2020's bargain basement defense.

Too many holes reside there, Besides defensive end Myles Garrett and cornerback Denzel Ward, there isn't much there there when the opposition owns the football. And Berry is saddled with a defensive coordinator madly in love with a 4-2-5 base.

Joe Woods doesn't appear to rank linebacker as an important position in the grand scheme, probably because the NFL has in the last dozen or so seasons become a pass-first league. Thus Woods' heavy use of members of the secondary in understandable. 

Judging from early indications, the emphasis on personnel this year will be on the defensive line and secondary even though the club lacks a playmaking, game-changing linebacker. No one in the linebackers room, whether it's outside or inside, has played well enough to be considered a difference maker.

B. J. Goodson played . . . well . . . he played all right. He did very little that stood out except maybe log more than 90% of the snaps. Same story with modestly-used youngsters Sione Takitaki, Mack Wilson and rookie Jacob Phillips. There is little about which to get excited with this crew.

Berry instead is looking for a partner for Garrett on the opposite side of the line as well as help in the secondary. No quarrel with another edge rusher or two. But with corner Greedy Williams and free safety Grant Delpit ready to return after missing the entire 2020 season, that part of the back seven should be in decent shape.

Berry knows a strong, consistent pass rush makes the secondary's job that much easier. The domino effect of making opposing quarterbacks uncomfortable in the pocket leads to turnovers. 

But the play of the linebackers cannot be understated. Good ones can make a huge difference. A perfect example is Lavonte David's contribution to the solid defensive effort the Tampa Bay Buccaneers displayed in romping over Kansas City in the Super Bowl.

As Berry scours the free-agent market and plots his strategy for the college football draft late next month, it is hoped he will not ignore linebacker. It is also hoped he isn't too sanguine about what he has now at the position. If he is, that's a big mistake.

With the exception of Garrett and Ward, the defense needs a complete front-to-back overhaul with money not a factor. It'll take more than linemen and secondary personnel to do the job. Minimizing the linebacker position is the wrong approach.

For the first time since arriving back in the NFL nearly a generation ago, the Browns are finally in position and primed to make a difference. It would be disappointing if moves they make in the next several months prove unwise.

News & views

News: J. J. Watt ends what seemed like endless speculation of his next destination by agreeing to contract terms (two years, $31 million) with the Arizona Cardinals Monday.

Views: Good. Glad the Browns didn't land him.

The abundantly talented but aging defensive end whose injury history precedes him is on the downward slope of his career. The Browns need to get younger. Watt does not fit that dynamic.

Many in Browns Nation would argue he would be the prefect complement to Myles Garrett. They were struck by the the star quality of Watt, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer who has become less of a dangerous edge rusher and more of a solid run stopper.

There is no question whatsoever the Browns need all kinds of help on defense. Watt was looking for a Super Bowl-contending team, one that could challenge immediately. The Browns aren't there yet. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have a much more balanced team.

While speculation centered on Green Bay, Tennessee, Pittsburgh and the Browns to a hopeful and yet foolish extent, the Cardinals sneaked in the back door. Why foolish? Because it would have meant overpaying for someone with a history of injuries. 

This new administration thus far has shown the ability to avoid making mistakes in the personnel department, especially on offense. They went cheap with the defense last season with what one believes was an eye on improving the other side of the football this time around.

Opening up the Haslam vault for Watt would have been a mistake. To borrow a phrase from the past . . , sometimes the best moves you make are the ones you don't make. 

If I'm going to hand out 15 mill a season to someone, I'd much rather give it to someone like Yannick Ngakoue, who made stops in Minnesota and Baltimore last season after talking his way out of Jacksonville.

I lobbied for the Browns to trade for Ngakoue last offseason. The club reportedly tried, but was unwilling to part with second-round and conditional fifth-round picks the Vikings offered. Two months later, the Ravens gave the Vikings a third-rounder for him.

The soon-to-be 26-year-old is on the small side at 6-2, 255 pounds, but he makes plays. In his first five National Football League seasons, he has recorded 45 sacks and forced 18 fumbles. Another possibility is Leonard Williams, who had a bust-out season in 2020 with 11.5 sacks with the New York Giants after posting 17.5 in his first five seasons. That is the kind of production the Browns need up front.

Watt is no longer in the upside category with regard to the future. Ngakoue is. So is Williams. Time to make a move in that direction.

News: Speculation ramps up that Odell Beckham Jr. might be wearing a different uniform next season.

Views: Predicting where Beckham will play nest season has become somewhat of a sport. The Browns say they want him back. Of course that's what they would say. It's also what they should say from a public relations standpoint. Don't create a story where there isn't one. Yet.

That doesn't mean it's all quiet in the OBJ front. While he diligently rehabs from his torn ACL midway through last season, rumors continue to swirl with pundits trying to put two and two together and suggest several landing spots. 

They will continue, most likely because they don't believe the Browns' will sit tight, especially after the way they played last season with OBJ a spectator. It's difficult to believe Beckham makes this offense better than it was the last 11 games.

With a wealth of young receivers -- they'll probably select at least one in the April college draft -- and a running game that pretty much embodies and defines Kevin Stefanski's offensive philosophy, it is not out of the question to assume Beckham will become an ex-Brown sooner rather than later.

There seems to be no question he and Baker Mayfield have had difficulties winding up on the same page the last two seasons, Mayfield, at least statistically, is clearly a better quarterback when Beckham is not involved in the play.

But because he has not been the productive receiver they expected when dealing for him, the Browns cannot expect anything more than a third-round pick, maybe a conditional second-rounder, in return if they choose to go that route.

News: More receiver news: Rashard Higgins wants to come back.

Views: There is no reason the Browns should hesitate to reward the young veteran, who has been clutch for Mayfield except when he found coach Freddie Kitchens' doghouse throughout most of the 2019 season. He wants to stay. Give him a good reason to not test the free-agent market.

To give you an idea of his worth, compare Higgins' contributions with Mayfield the last three seasons against those of Jarvis Landry. It's enlightening.                  

Higgins has caught 69% of his 116 targets in that span for 1,226 yards and nine touchdowns. Jarvis has latched on to his 388 targets 61% of the time for 2,990 yards and 13 touchdowns. One was a starter; the other a part-time contributor. 

Pay the man.

Super thoughts . . . 

In the wake of a rare lopsided victory in Super Bowl LV arrives two of my favorite football aphorisms, each contributing mightily toward  the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' massively decisive victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

In no particular order, they prove way more often than not to be absolutely true:

Offense wins football games; defense wins championships. And football games are won and lost in the trenches. A simple breakdown of the Bucs' surprisingly easy 31-9 beatdown reveals both truths.

The Bucs owned the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. The offensive line protected its 43-year-old quarterback well and bashed open enough holes for running backs Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones II to rack up 150 yards.

With due respect to Tom Brady, his seventh championship ring and fifth most valuable player award, the real MVP in this one was the Tampa Bay defense, which did something no one else has been able to do the last three National Football League seasons. Stop Patrick Mahomes II.

Not just stop, but almost completely shut him down. Rendered him ineffective for 28 minutes and 37 seconds. Made him look like . . . well . . . just like an ordinary quarterback, which he clearly is not, making what the Bucs' defense accomplished that much more remarkable. Holding Mahomes to just three field goals qualifies.

The defensive line seemed to be in Mahomes' face on nearly every snap. He was in scramble mode seemingly split seconds after the snap. He was hurried on more than half of his 56 dropbacks and scrambled an unbelievable 500 yards escaping the pass rush. 

Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, remembrances from the week 12 home loss to the Chiefs in the regular season clearly in his mind, concocted the perfect defense to shut Mahomes down, taking away the Chiefs' bread-and-butter offense, the quick-strike long ball, with a two-deep safety zone.

Mahomes threw for 462 yards and wide receiver Tyreek Hill amassed 268 of them and all three touchdowns in the first outing, seven grabs for 203 yards in the first quarter alone. Bowles employed numerous blitz packages and man coverage in that one. 

The two aphorisms intersect. The Bucs manhandled both Chiefs lines in the trenches, especially on defense, taking advantage of a Kansas City line stitched together throughout the season due to injuries and COVID-19 opt-outs.

It might have been a different story if offensive tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz (injured) and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (a medical doctor who opted out to work at a long-term health care facility during the pandemic in Montreal) had been healthy. We'll never know.

Most of the pressure arrived from the flanks, forcing the young quarterback to move well before he wanted. He had precious little time to scour the field before taking off. Most of his yardage came during garbage time after Bowles backed off once the game was clearly won

Bowles is a perfect  example of an assistant coach who is much better as a coordinator than as a head coach. The few coordinators who find success in the top spot are considered generals. The rest are lieutenants. Bowles, who coached the Browns' secondary in 2004, is the latter. In four seasons as head man with the New York Jets (2015-18), he was 24-40.

And let's not forget Bucs offensive coordinator, Byron Leftwich, a four-team, 10-season NFL journeyman quarterback who began his coaching career with the Arizona Cardinals under Bruce Arians, reuniting with him in 2019 in Tampa.

He kept the Chiefs' defense off balance with a nice mixture of plays. He got a little help from a couple of questionable pass interference calls against the KC secondary, but that was hardly the reason the Chiefs were humbled.

No, this one belonged to the Buccaneers from the start. Another notch for the defense-wins-championships crowd and those who firmly believe football games are won and lost in the trenches.

Weighing in 

It is truly amazing how quickly some lame-brained idea can catch fire and light up the Internet. Viral doesn't begin to describe the latest stick of dynamite involving the Browns and quarterback Baker Mayfield.

The on-going saga down in Houston with regard to the playing services of Deshaun Watson caught the attention of the National Football League universe after the Texans foolishly allowed the star quarterback to be part of the selection process for a new head coach.

Foolishly because there seems to be an unclear division of responsibility within that structure of that dysfunctional team. As a general rule, the ownership and front office take care of the business end of the team. That includes selection of player personnel and the coaching staff.

Players are paid to play, not stick their wealthy noses into places they don't belong. Because the club hierarchy paid scant attention to whom Watson wanted for his next head coach, he all but demanded he wanted to be an ex-Texan.

The Internet exploded almost instantly and speculated wildly as to his next destination. Web sites all over the NFL landscape climbed aboard. That's where the Browns entered the picture.

One fan Web site among the many devoted to the Browns launched the following thought: "It's time for the Cleveland Browns to think about Deshaun Watson", suggesting it wouldn't be a bad idea for General Manager Andrew Berry to at least think about giving the Texans a buzz, dangling Mayfield as bait.

Well, that set off all kinds of bells and whistles, catching the attention of the pundits on ESPN, FOX and the NFL Network among others, and undoubtedly numerous radio talk shows across the nation with regard to these high profile quarterbacks.

The notion Watson and Mayfield intersect in the thoughts of anyone indicates some people are not paying attention. Both are good quarterbacks. In fact, it would not be incorrect to call Watson a great quarterback. And therein lies the problem.

Mayfield and Watson are entirely different types of quarterback. There is no plausible argument that would convince me the Browns would be a better team with Watson in charge of the huddle than Mayfield.

Football is a team game on both sides of the football. On offense, it's 11 men pulling in the same direction. It took nearly half a season under the tutelage of Kevin Stefanski for Mayfield to realize that and become Stefanski's kind of offensive leader.

He is the polar opposite of what he brought to the table in his first two NFL seasons. The mistake-prone gunslinger has morphed into a model of reliability capable of keeping his team in games regardless of how his cohorts on defense play.

I am not certain at all that Watson can change his game because that's what he would have to do to fit Stefanski's methodical, button-down system. It's a system that values the run as much as, if not more than, the forward pass.

Watson has carved out a reputation as one of the league's best passers, but would have to play a diminished role, relatively speaking, for the Cleveland head coach. 

Don't get me wrong about Watson. I love him. As a fantasy football quarterback. Had him on our team this season and we were rewarded with a third-place finish in a 20-team league. But he is not a system quarterback, where ball carelessness is not tolerated.

If I was starting a team, damn right I would want Watson over Mayfield. But not now. Not when the Browns after all these years have finally developed a winning culture under Stefanski. Why spoil it now? Makes no sense whatsoever.

Why fix something that isn't broken? If it weren't for Mayfield and the offense, the Browns would not have come close to qualifying for the playoffs, knocked off the Pittsburgh Steelers in the opening round and scared the crap out of the Kansas City Chiefs in round two.

There are certain rumors that have legs as they swirl around the NFL landscape. They linger for a while before something definitive emerges. This could be one of those.

The Texans, who ultimately hired a head coach Watson didn't favor, say their quarterback is going nowhere. They paid him a lot of money last season and made it clear they intend to make certain he is going to stick around to collect it.

Personally, I don't think Watson is going anywhere. It would be a devastating public relations blunder for a club that has lately exhibited the same dysfunctional tendencies that hampered the Browns for the better part of last two decades.

The best part of this scenario? Mayfield is also going nowhere.

Mid-week thoughts

Kevin Stefanski sure takes losing hard. Seemingly too hard. But that's not bad.

"We achieved a lot . . . but . . . we came up short," he said in his postmortem to the Browns' highly successful 2020 season, "and there's a very real sense of disappointment among our players and coaches."

Actually, there's nothing wrong with that approach. Swallowing a loss is harder the more successful you are and the 12-6 record the Browns rang up was bound to generate more disappointment than usual with the season-ending finale in Kansas City a few days ago.

That heart-breaking loss to the Chiefs in the division semifinal should nag at Stefanski and everyone else in the organization throughout the offseason. It should not be forgotten. So close and yet so far against the defending Super Bowl champions should incentivize until the next training camp.

This team, mainly through the coaching of Stefanski and his staff, maintained a resolve that enabled them to battle through rough periods along the way and reach the playoffs for the first time since 2002 with a rookie head coach.

Stefanski probably won't ever forget the final eight minutes of the Chiefs game -- when the Browns had a great chance to take the lead late --  and sort of beat himself up for the way he handled it. "I didn't put guys in a position to succeed," he said. "That is where I'm going to work hard to make sure the next time we are in that situation, I do."

He might also want to think about utilizing the NFL's best running backs at the same time rather than one at a time. By now, he should know that with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt in a game, that puts more pressure on the opposition because both are playmakers and can explode at any time.

Chubb should run the football at least 20 times a game. Only once in 14 games this season did he carry more than 20 times. In fact, he averaged only 15.8 carries a game. He should average much more. Less than 16 is way too few for one of the NFL's most dangerous runners.

And there is no excuse to keep Hunt chained to the bench as Stefanski did in the first half of the KC loss. He was strictly a spectator as the Cleveland offense huffed and puffed futilely through the first 30 minutes. That's not thinking clearly.

As the playcaller, it is Stefanski's job to utilize all his weapons. Perhaps to a certain extent that's what he meant when he said he was not putting guys in a position to succeed. It's difficult to succeed if a playmaker, in this case Hunt, who later scored a touchdown when called on in the second half, is tethered to the bench.

He pronounced himself "excited" about Chubb and Hunt. "I'm excited about them moving forward," he said. "It is our job to grow in this offense and find more things they can do." It took him an entire season to find this out?

The limelight this offseason, Stefanski said, will be on improvement. "We will have to spend a lot of time . . . finding ways to make sure we are getting better," he said. "We have to get better as a football team. I have to get better as coach. That will be our focus."

He might think about getting better as a playcaller, too. Toward the end of the season, he tilted a higher percentage of plays toward the passing game, apparently forgetting how much the ground game early in the season helped establish one of the league's best and most effective offenses.

Final grade for Stefanski: B+. While he did a terrific job, I can't yet give him any kind of A because there is still plenty of room for improvement. Qualifying for the playoffs is the easy part. Getting back to them next year won't be as easy.

Monday leftovers

A lot to unpack as the Browns' 2020 season grinds to a close. Let's start with . . . 

The punt that was and the punt that wasn't. Their connection explains the tale of why the Browns have turned their attention to the 2021 National Football League season.

First, the punt that was. 

Midway through the fourth quarter Sunday in Kansas City in a divisional playoff game. Eight minutes left in regulation and the Browns, trailing by five points but with momentum, begin what ultimately became their final drive of the afternoon after an end-zone interception by Karl Joseph.

Two minutes later, Baker Mayfield sneaks a couple of yards for a first down at the 31-yard line then is force to call a timeout on first down -- the second after losing a replay challenge earlier -- due to a communications problem with the bench. 

Three plays yield one net yard. Four minutes and 19 seconds remain and Kevin Stefanski is faced with a decision. The season is in the balance. Punt to get better field position and put the fate of that season in the hands of a defense that has struggled most of the season, or go for it on fourth-and-9 from your 32.

Situation: The Browns had the Chiefs back on their heels. Patrick Mahomes II was in the dressing room with a concussion. Journeyman Chad Henne, who threw the earlier pick, was the Chiefs' quarterback. Decisions, decisions.

Stefanski chose the former. Did not hesitate. Jamie Gillan's punt pinned the Chiefs at their 28 with 4:09 left. All the defense needed was a stop. Somehow get Chiefs punter Tommy Townsend on the field for the first time.

Six plays and a couple of minutes later, Browns defensive end Myles Garrett dropped Henne for a six-yard loss. The decision to punt sure looked good as the Chiefs faced a third and 14 at their 35. Henne gained all but a foot of that as the Browns lost contain to bring up fourth down at the Chiefs 48,

Which brings us to the punt that wasn't.

Just about everyone watching from the press box, on television, those few seated in Arrowhead Stadium and on the Cleveland sideline believed Chiefs head coach Andy Reid would punt. Didn't think anything else even as the Chiefs lined up as if to run a play. 

It sure sounded as though Henne, in shotgun formation with less than a foot to go, tried to pull the Browns offside with several attempts using a hard count and get a cheap first down. The Browns didn't budge. Until center Austin Reiter snapped the football to Henne with two seconds left on the play clock.

Wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who tortured the Cleveland secondary all day, jab-stepped cornerback M. J. Stewart out of position long enough to break wide open in the right flat for a short pass and gave himself up after making the first down.

Bottom line: Reid gambled and win. Stefanski gambled and lost. The old master bettered the rookie. He was outcoached.

Nevertheless, I can't quarrel with Stefanski's original decision to punt. Conventional wisdom at that point,  especially with Mahomes out of commission, was the correct call even though it didn't turn out as he had hoped. Too much time remained to go for it so close to his end zone.

***

The rule that took away what almost probably would have been a Cleveland touchdown late in the second quarter is being battered again by pundits and NFL critics all over the media landscape. And because it doesn't occur often enough to reconsider, it probably will remain in the rules book.

If Rashard Higgins' fumble at the Kansas City one-foot line had skittered out of bounds there instead of rolling into and out of the end zone, the Browns would have had a first and goal at that point and in position to trim the Chiefs' lead to 16-10.

As it turned out, field judge David Meslow was totally correct to immediately rule it a touchback, according to the rule. The call survived the replay, which was generated automatically by the turnover.

It's one of the dumbest old rules in the book and eventually will be removed, replaced by one that covers the same situation, but makes more sense. Punishing the offense and rewarding the defense in that case makes absolutely no sense. 

The Chiefs probably don't think so. It all depends which end of the play you occupy. In this case, it was a gift and a warning sign the Browns were not going to go away anytime soon. That proved to be the case with a second half that frightened the daylights out of the Chiefs.

If there is a next time for Higgins, maybe he'll aim for the outside of the pylon which would almost guarantee the ball will land out of bounds instead of in the end zone.

***

Joe Woods has taken a lot of heat this season and rightly so to a degree. But the beleaguered Cleveland defensive coordinator has been operating with a paucity of quality personnel most of the season. In order to see what he can really do, General Manager Andrew Berry must  help him in the offseason as much as he helped reconstruct the offense this season.

Injuries and COVID-19 miseries throughout the season robbed Woods of his better (relatively speaking) defenders in the secondary. The club's linebacker corps ranks well below the norm. And the defensive line, the team's strength on that side of the ball, needs more than Garrett. A lot more.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done. It's not fair to pin the entire blame at Woods. He can game plan only with what he's got. He is very fortunate the offense played as well as it did to take off some of the heat. Let's see what he can do with a more talented roster. After what he's gone through this season, he deserves the chance.

***

Considering the starting offensive line, the heart and soul on that side of the football, played as a unit a little more than half the time this season is a testament to the importance of having quality personnel on the bench.

When fully healthy, or least healthy enough to play significant minutes, the Browns were 7-3 in 18 games, 5-3 when at least one missed a start. During a four-game stretch when right guard Wyatt Teller was idle with a calf strain, they split four games. And when they were together for a subsequent four-game stretch, they won all four.

Berry did a terrific job of putting together what is recognized in many quarters as one of the best, if not the best, offensive lines in the league. That they were able to piece together a 12-6 overall record with all the physical interruptions provides hope they will be even better next season.

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Questions about the Cleveland receivers Sunday: Why was rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones targeted just once? He caught a 23-yarder and that was it. Nice per-catch average, though. . . . Was it in the game plan to target Jarvis Landry 10 times and have him catch seven of those for 20 yards? And a touchdown. But 20 yards? . . . Why has rookie tight end Harrison Bryant fallen out of favor? Targeted just once like his fellow rookie. Didn't catch it. . . . Why was high-priced tight end Austin Hooper targeted just thrice? . . . Why wasn't No. 3 receiver KhaDarel Hodge's name not on the stats sheet? . . . Why was Nick Chubb targeted five times -- caught two, dropped two -- and Kareem Hunt, a much better receiver out of the backfield, just once? . . . And why did Hunt, playing against his old team, touch the ball just seven times (for 34 yards and a touchdown)? . . . Stefanski has to learn over the offseason how to use his talented backs better.

***

Finally . . . Baker Mayfield has started every game since replacing Tyrod Taylor in the third game of the 2018 season. If you're not keeping count, that's 47 in a row. . . .  Travis Kelce and Hill combined for 16 catches against the Browns for 219 yards and a Kelce touchdown. . . . Kelce faked Browns cornerback Denzel Ward out of his jock strap and various other parts of his uniform in getting open and scoring on his 24-yard reception. . . . Final quote for what it's worth from Stefanski after the game: "It stings. We came here to win and didn't get the job done. There is a finality to that." Yes there is. On to next season.

They have arrived

During the course of a football season, teams find out a lot about themselves along the way. Take the Browns, for example, Sunday in Kansas City in the divisional playoff game against the Chiefs.

Even though they dropped a 22-17 heartbreaker to the Chiefs, they walked off the field knowing they belonged. Naturally, there's little solace knowing the season is over after one of the most memorable seasons in recent franchise history, but now they know they can hang with the big boys. 

Except for a defense that must and almost assuredly will be addressed seriously in the offseason and can be pointed at as one of the major reasons the Browns did not advance to the AFC championship game next Sunday. They came a lot closer than most believed.

A few veteran observers of the National Football League believed the Browns were on the verge of something special and were at least a year away from making significant noise. But certainly not this. Not scaring and pushing arguably the league's best team to the limit.

There is no shame in losing as they did. In doing so, they sent a message to the rest of the NFL after impressive offensive performances in two post-season games. They raced well past competitive and now stand tall as contender.

In a game rife with gambles by head coach/playcaller Kevin Stefanski, the Browns pushed the defending Super Bowl champions to the edge before the defense for the umpteenth time this season failed to come up big with the game hanging in the balance.

The Browns had made up most of a 19-3 deficit with a pair of second-half touchdowns by Jarvis Landry and Kareem Hunt after a first half that saw the offense puzzlingly sputter. They actually had a decent shot at taking the lead.

The Chiefs were ripe to be upset. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II, who had toyed with the Cleveland defense all afternoon until getting whacked and knocked dizzy by Cleveland linebacker Mack Wilson on a third-and-a-foot run midway through the third quarter, was in the dressing room with a concussion.

Chad Henne, a 13-year journeyman most people thought was out of football, had taken over and produced just a field goal. Four minutes and change remained in regulation after the Browns punted. All they needed was a stop against a team that had not punted all afternoon. Just one measly stop.

Stefanski, who was perfect on three fourth-down gambles, played his final, as it turned out, gamble of the day, betting his defense would finally do the job, especially with Mahomes in the dressing room. So much for gambling perfection.

For some reason, which will probably be explained later, the Cleveland defense overshifted to the strong (or right) side of the Chiefs' formation as the clock moved relentlessly, protecting against the possibility of wide receiver Tyreek Hill or tight end Travis Kelce making a play. That left the weak side open.

Henne took advantage moments later when, after taking a six-yard sack courtesy of Myles Garrett, found wide open space around the left side with nary a Brown defender in sight and lumbered 13 yards and two feet on a third and 14 with exactly two minutes and no timeouts left. 

Then Chiefs head coach Andy Reid boldly called a little five-yard pass on fourth and a foot to the reliable Hill, who had eight receptions for 110 yards on the afternoon, choking off any possibility of a Cleveland comeback. 

Frankly, I expected this one to be more of a blowout with the Browns playing catchup all afternoon with an offense quite capable of doing just that. It wasn't until Stefanski finally woke up and unleashed the ground game in the second half that the Browns came alive on that side of the football.

Mahomes led the Chiefs to 19 first-half points on all four possessions, while the Browns mustered just a Cody Parkey field goal. (It would have been 23 points had Harrison Butker not missed an extra point and chip-shot field goal.)

Their deepest penetration during the half came at the tailend of a six-play drive that died when wide receiver Rashard Higgins fumbled while stretching for the pylon at the tailend of 25-yard catch and run on a first down from the Kansas City 26.

The ball slipped out of his hands after a hard hit by free safety Daniel Sorensen and skittered into and then out of the end zone for a touchback. So instead of the Browns narrowing the lead to 16-10, the Chiefs stretched it to 19-3 on a short Butker field goal. 

In that half, the run-loving Stefanski mysteriously dialed up just six run plays that gained 18 miserly yards. That bears repeating. Six plays with Nick Chubb and Hunt very healthy and extremely ready. Perhaps that was because Baker Mayfield was pretty much on target with most of his 18 passes and looked confident. It didn't help this receivers dropped five passes.

Nevertheless, virtually abandoning a phase of the game that pretty much got them to this point of the season is inexcusable. Once Stefanski realized his mistake, that's when the Cleveland offense looked very much like the one that overwhelmed Pittsburgh a week ago.

After two incompletions and a Tyrann Mathieu pick to open up the second half, the head coach finally awoke and called on Chubb, who immediately gouged out 41 yards on his first two carries -- more than doubling the entire first-half output in less than a minute -- and the Browns scored on the next two possessions, including an 18-play, 75-yard semi-marathon that bled 8:17 off the clock.

It was only the second interception Mayfield has thrown in the last nearly 11 games and the first since week 14 against Baltimore. But the defense, to their credit along with uncharacteristic consecutive incomplete passes by Mahomes, forced another Butker field goal.

The Cleveland offense, operating with three men manning at left tackle, pretty much kept Mayfield clean, a Chiefs blitz resulting in his only sack. 

Rookie Jedrick Wills jr. opened up the game at the position and left with an ankle injury on the first play. He was replaced by Kendall Lamm, who lasted until he left early in the third quarter with an elbow issue. Newcomer Blake Hance took over just when Stefanski turned to the ground game and played well.

All in all, the results of this unusual season have clearly laid the groundwork for the 2021 season, giving Browns Nation more than just hope for the immediate future. It glows brightly and portends much bigger things.