THE TAKE
All bad teams are not equal. Titans, Jets, Raiders are a mess. I would take HC Kevin Stefanski, GM Andrew Berry and the Cleveland roster in a second over the first three.
BOLDNESS
20/100
GRADE
18/100
PLAYERS / TEAMS
None tagged
GRADING CRITERIA
Take is TRUE if, at end of 2025 NFL regular season, the Cleveland Browns have a better record than at least two of the three mentioned teams (Titans, Jets, Raiders), and/or rank higher in ESPN's Football Power Index or similar composite team quality metric, validating that Cleveland is meaningfully better than those franchises.
recency biasvague
OUTCOME
CONFIRMED FALSEThe 2025 NFL regular season final records tell the opposite story from Cowherd's take. The Browns finished 5-12, worse than all three teams he dismissed: the Jets (3-14), Titans (3-14), and Raiders (3-14) all ended up with nearly identical records to Cleveland, and Cleveland was actually only marginally better by two wins — but context matters: the Jets, Titans, and Raiders all finished with 3 wins while the Browns scraped to 5. However, the Browns were still firmly in the bottom tier, and the framing of Cleveland being 'meaningfully better' than those franchises is not supported — all four teams were among the NFL's worst. Stefanski and Berry were fired after the 2024 season, invalidating the core premise of the take.