BALTIMORE — There was no chance the Cleveland Browns were going to win on Saturday, and the final game of a miserable season went almost according to script.
Because acceptance was the prevailing feeling of the season’s final month-plus, it was time. For three quarters, the Baltimore Ravens were almost gentle about the orange and white-clad speedbump in their way, only really hitting the gas in the second half.
With Lamar Jackson as the dazzler, Derrick Henry as the finisher and a predictable first-quarter interception return for a touchdown by rookie Nate Wiggins, a little gas was enough. The Ravens won, 35-10, to clinch the AFC North title and complete the Browns’ season at 3-14.
GO DEEPER
Ravens beat Browns 35-10 to clinch AFC North, Jackson makes history: Takeaways
Remember when Browns general manager Andrew Berry referred to the team’s clandestine pursuit of quarterback Deshaun Watson as a five-month odyssey? Saturday marked the end of a four-month spiral that gradually got less hopeful and competitive.
At the predictable end was a losing streak of six, the last five by double digits. With Watson on injured reserve since October after delivering one win in seven starts, the Browns finish with a league-high 23 picks thrown by four different quarterbacks. Their four interceptions recorded are a league-low.
For as hopelessly bad as Watson and the offense were, there’s not just one number or one glaring reason to describe why and how this became the most disappointing Browns season in a while — and potentially of the entire new era. It just was, and Bailey Zappe throwing interceptions as the franchise’s 40th starting quarterback of the team’s post-1999 era and the seventh of the last two seasons almost made for a fitting end.
When the Browns capped a 4-44 stretch from 2015 to 2017 by not winning a single game in 2017, they were a talent-deficient team in constant transition with youth and inexperience across the roster. This season, with what started as the most expensive team in NFL history and almost everybody back from an 11-win playoff squad, the Browns totaled just 26 points over the final four games and finished with a point differential of minus-177.
In that 0-16 season in 2017, their point differential was minus-176.
The 2024 season ended here on the first Saturday of 2025 with Cleveland playing a game nobody believed it could win, piloted by an overmatched quarterback and ultimately sunk by turnovers. And that’s where the predictability of it all starts to get especially uncomfortable. After the game, reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett insinuated that he’ll hear the decision-makers’ plans for returning the Browns to playoff contention instantly before either requesting a trade or a long-term extension.
“There will be something coming,” Garrett said.
That likely ending has been obvious since mid-December when Garrett publicly said he wants no part of a rebuild and took a sharp turn from previous comments that he’d continue to play in Cleveland, where he’s under contract through 2026.
Unless you believe Garrett has been in full negotiation mode for nearly a month now, you can fairly assume he didn’t want this. Any of this. He wanted to win, wants to win and is struggling to explain how it got here.
Do the Browns have to rebuild? Probably, but their latest restructure of Watson’s historically bad contract at least offers the hint that they’ll try for expensive band-aids. Hitting a home run — or four of them, actually — in April’s draft would help, and Saturday’s loss guarantees Cleveland a top-three pick. That selection could be anywhere from No. 1 to No. 3 depending on Sunday’s results involving New England and Tennessee.
So if the team’s pitch and presentation to Garrett starts there, and potentially with a plan to also get an experienced quarterback who actually reads and attacks opposing defenses, maybe the Browns can patch things together. Maybe they’ll find a run game, and a left tackle, and get some development out of young players who got game experience in the back half of the season either because of injury or because the guys previously in front of them had just failed.
Failure was everywhere in 2024. How it’s attacked, pushed forward financially and sold to Garrett (and maybe others) will determine if the Browns can realistically keep a chunk of this team together and try for better next year.
With the last game long decided, the Browns started forcing the ball to Jerry Jeudy and succeeded in getting the receiver his 90th catch for the franchise’s single-season record. On the next play, Zappe was intercepted by Ravens defensive tackle Michael Pierce.
BIG BIG MAN INT! Michael Pierce drops and coverage at 355 pounds and picks it off!
📺: #CLEvsBAL on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/sjMZjhmPuu— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2025
It was, again, predictable. But it’s over now — all of it — and not a moment too soon. The 345-pound Pierce might have been able to take his interception a long way, and possibly all the way. But after just a few yards, he decided to slide down and save his energy for another day.
Browns fans can relate. Soon, they’ll be just like Garrett in at least one key way: extremely curious — but pensive — to see what the folks in charge can cook up next.
(Photo: Mitch Stringer / Imagn Images)
