All the Cleveland Browns can hope for during the 2025-26 NFL season is that they improve. After another disappointing season a year ago, the lights will be on in Cleveland. For Kevin Stefanski, Shedeur Sanders, if he gets an opportunity to play, Myles Garrett, and everybody else important on the roster, the Browns have to be better.Â
Are the Browns Still a Fit in the Tough AFC North?
However, it’s still fair to question if the Cleveland Browns will be any better than they were a year ago. On paper, this team might be even worse, barring one of the rookies with Sanders or Dillon Gabriel taking a step up. Even if they do, it isnât exactly as if they’re filled with talent on the rest of the roster, making it questionable whether the Browns will even have an opportunity to compete.Â
For those reasons and some hilarious others, Sporting News’ Jarrett Bailey recently suggested that the Browns should be kicked out of the AFC North. His article raised some fair points, suggesting that the Buffalo Bills should take their spot.Â
“Domes are stupid and a disgrace to the game of football. It doesn’t matter where you are, or where you play, putting a roof on your stadium makes you a Class A soft team.Â
“The AFC North takes that to an even higher degree. It’s a division known for bad weather and hard hitting in blue-collar towns. And while it still is for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, and Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns have decided snow, rain, and wind are too scary and too hard to handle, so a dome is going up in Cleveland.
“For that, the Browns should be kicked out of the AFC North and swapped out with another team, and I have the perfect proposal – send the Buffalo Bills to the AFC North and put the Browns in the already God awful AFC East,” he wrote.
Why Browns Fans Should Have Hope for the Future
Bailey has a few engaging points in this situation, and it’s tough to blame him from an NFL standpoint. Domes in the AFC North is just wrong.
The AFC North is arguably the best division in football, too, and the Browns aren’t exactly contributing to that right now.Â
But if the Cleveland Browns struggle again, there’s reason to believe that the AFC North might be pretty happy, even with the dome.
Not only would the NFL have an opportunity for them to land the first overall pick next season, which could help them finally find their franchise quarterback, but Cleveland has excellent fans, who simply just want to win.Â
There’s plenty that can be said about the Browns, but one of those things can’t be on their fans. Cleveland fans show up no matter what, even in the worst times when they shouldn’t.
If the Browns get the first overall pick in next year’s draft, which ESPN recently predicted, they had them selecting another quarterback, which isnât ideal for Sanders and Gabriel, but might be better for the long-term future of the franchise.Â
âSpending two picks on quarterbacks in 2025 — Dillon Gabriel (third round) and Shedeur Sanders (fifth round) — shouldn’t prevent the Browns from looking for a long-term passer here. Klubnik enters the season as my No. 1 QB. In 2024, he threw for 3,639 yards, 36 touchdowns and six interceptions, highlighted by a gutsy performance against Texas in the College Football Playoff (336 passing yards, three TDs, one INT). Klubnik reminds me of Baker Mayfield — whom Cleveland selected with the No. 1 pick in 2018 — in terms of arm strength, mobility and playmaking awareness,â Matt Miller wrote.
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