It would have been very easy for the Browns to pair up Myles Garrett with Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 draft. But nobody in the Browns' football operations department wanted Mahomes badly enough.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is an analyst of the Cleveland Browns for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Four downs on Browns (3-10) v. Kansas City Chiefs (12-1)
First down: Tales from the Hundred Years War.
Myles Garrett’s next sack pushes his career total over 100. He’s at 99.5 – not counting one sack of Mahomes in the 2020 wild-card game. Garrett has a sack in each of the two regular-season meetings with Mahomes, so there’s a good chance he will reach his milestone against the greatest quarterback of his time. They entered the NFL in the same 2017 draft – Garrett as the No. 1 overall pick and Mahomes as No. 10 after the Chiefs traded up with Buffalo. Sadly note that the Browns also owned the No. 12 pick in this draft. We will come back to that. At the time, Sashi Brown, the team’s former general counsel, was making the draft day decisions. Berry was Brown’s top football advisor -- vice president of player personnel. Above both of them was Paul DePodesta, owner Jimmy Haslam’s chief strategy officer. It was widely reported at the time that the debate over the No. 1 pick was between Garrett and North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky. DePodesta favored Trubisky, but coach Hue Jackson and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams successfully argued for Garrett. At no time was it reported that Mahomes was under consideration by the Browns. Evidently, it was Trubisky or nobody. Had somebody in the draft room – I don’t know … maybe Berry? – advocated strongly for Mahomes, the Browns easily could have beaten Kansas City to the punch and traded No. 12 to Buffalo for No. 10. Instead, the Browns traded down, not up. They sent the No. 12 pick to Houston, which selected Clemson QB Deshaun Watson. The Browns sunk to No. 25 and used it on Michigan safety Jabrill Peppers. Imagine Garrett and Mahomes on the same team for the last eight years. Such opportunities present themselves, oh, once in a lifetime. The Bills recovered in the next season’s draft by taking quarterback Josh Allen. The Browns, now under the control of GM John Dorsey as Berry was dispatched to the Philadelphia Eagles for GM training, took Mayfield No. 1 overall.
Second down: Once upon a time.
In the 2020 season, Mayfield took the Browns to the playoffs. When they lost to the Chiefs, 22-17, in the divisional round, it had the makings of a future rivalry for supremacy in the AFC. The thought of college quarterback rivals Mayfield and Mahomes duking it out for years to come was enriched when the teams met in the 2021 season opener. Although the Chiefs prevailed, 33-29, the Browns proved again they could compete against the best. Alas, that was as good as it got. Since that 2021 Week 1 game, the Chiefs have an overall record of 57-16 with two Super Bowl championships and a conference game loss. Mahomes has started all but one of their 73 games. The Browns have an overall record of 29-35 with one wild-card game loss. They have started 10 different quarterbacks. “There’s just a lot of consistency all along the board with their team,” said Garrett. “Especially the quarterback position. We moved on from our quarterback at that time and we’ve also done that in different positions on offense and defense. While [they] as a team, their standard hasn’t changed, their coach hasn’t changed and their roster really hasn’t changed, other than the wide receiver room. So, I think that’s been one thing that set us apart.” As they meet in Huntington Bank Field, the Chiefs are close to clinching the AFC No. 1 seed with Mahomes stalking the NFL’s first three-peat in a Super Bowl. The Browns are free-falling to the nadir of the Berry era with yet another quarterback search to come.
Third down: Pass rush S.O.S.
Only five quarterbacks have suffered more sacks than Mahomes (35) this season. It’s one reason the Chiefs’ offense hasn’t blown out opponents as in previous years. The problem with the Browns’ task is that unless Garrett beats double-teams and chips, the defense has no other pass-rush threat. Through the Browns’ first nine games they had a formidable complement to Garrett in Za’Darius Smith. Garrett had 7 sacks and Smith had 5. But since Berry traded Smith to Detroit for a 2025 fifth-round pick and an exchange of 2026 late-round picks, Garrett has been virtually a one-man show. Garrett has four sacks in the ensuing four games. Ogbo Okoronkwo and Jordan Hicks have one apiece. (Meanwhile, Smith has three sacks in four games with the rampaging Lions). “Yeah, I’d say … over the last maybe four or five games, we haven’t done a good enough job of rushing the passer and creating pressure,” said defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. “I mean, Myles still sees a lot of the tricked-up schemes that he’s always seen, but when teams take the approach of taking one player out, it just puts more of a spotlight on the other guys to go win those one-on-ones. I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of about a month ago that we were I think number two in the NFL in third down and our percentage wasn’t very far off of last year when we were one. And then, really, in about the last month that’s significantly dropped.” Schwartz hopes the return of rookie Michael Hall will help.
Fourth down: Taylor Swift’s significant other.
Travis Kelce was good before Mahomes arrived in Kansas City. But the Cleveland Heights native has been on an I-77 bee-line to Canton since Mahomes took over as Chiefs’ quarterback in 2018. With Mahomes delivering the ball, Kelce has recorded five of the top 10 single-season receiving yard marks for tight ends of all time. As Mahomes’ go-to guy, Kelce has been a mainstay on the dynasty that has produced four Super Bowl appearances and three titles in six seasons – and threatens to become the league’s first team to three-peat in their seventh year. “He’s real savvy. I feel like savvy’s a good word to use for him,” safety Grant Delpit said of Kelce, 35. “He tries to block your leverage a lot. The speed might not be there, but he understands the game so well and is on the same page with his quarterback.” I was startled when Delpit said this will be his first game against Kelce and Mahomes. Delpit missed the 2020 season playoff game when an Achilles tendon injury cost him his entire rookie year. When the rematch came in the 2021 season opener, Delpit was out with a hamstring injury.
The pick: Chiefs 26, Browns 20.
My record: 8-5.