The Browns got a taste of the playoffs this past season as a Wild Card team. As Andrew Berry emphasized at his end of the season press conference though, one of the organizations main goals remains winning the division and hosting a playoff game.
While quarterback Deshaun Watson works his way back from shoulder surgery hoping to help that cause in 2024, he’s looking for any advice he can get to make that goal a reality.
In the latest episode of the QB Unplugged Podcast that Watson co-hosts with his personal coach Quincy Avery, retired Steelers safety turned ESPN analyst, Ryan Clark joined the duo and Watson sought some advice from the Super Bowl Champion on what it takes to win the AFC North.
“It’s a it’s a it’s a very different a very different division than it was when I play, obviously,” Clark said. But I think the one thing that always stands there, it’s tough. Right?
“I think you learn that like if you don’t fight through injury, that game and play it so the fourth and play well, you don’t win. There’s going to be physicality involved. In that division. You think about every has great rushers. Like that’s what the AFC North was built on whether it’s Myles [Garrett], T.J. [Watt], Trey Hendrickson, [Justin] Madubuike. The rushers all all over the place.”
Deshaun Watson asked Ryan Clark for his advice on what it takes to win the AFC North on the QB Unplugged podcast this week. His response via @Lockerverse: pic.twitter.com/cypi4iXCDZ
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Clark is right, the AFC North has developed quite the reputation for being a physical division. Rugged defense and running the football are the staple characteristics of what many who have dawned Browns, Steelers, Ravens or Bengals jerseys would dub “AFC North football.”
The Browns QB showcased his toughness this past season in playing through the grind of division foes. In what wound up being Watson’s final game of the season he led a 14-point comeback against the Ravens — going 14-for-14 for 134 yards and a touchdown in the second half — to earn a 33-31 win. Two days later it was revealed he had played most of the game with a fractured glenoid in his throwing shoulder that wound up ending his season. Watson seems to have the physical part down.
There is one major difference in the outlook of the teams in the AFC North now though, from when Clark played.
“The difference is now is the quarterbacks are really good,” he said. “I think that’s why you struggle if you’re a Pittsburgh because, you have to, like you go draft Kenny [Pickett], Kenny has to play at a higher level because you’re going to play Lamar [Jackson], Joe [Burrow] and Deshaun twice a year. It wasn’t it wasn’t that when I played. We had Ben [Roethlisberger], Ben was the best quarterback in the division for a long time. You know, then Joe [Flacco] came, played against Carson [Palmer] and Andy [Dalton] for a little bit. Cleveland was a revolving door of terrible people.”
It’s no secret the Browns lagged behind the rest of their division rivals in the quarterback department during Clark’s playing days from 2006-2013. Oddly enough, the script has flipped a decade later as Clark’s Steelers are the team lagging behind at the QB position at the moment.
Clark had one more piece of advice for Watson as well.
“The other thing too is, it’s consistency,” Clark asserted. “I don’t think that’s any different than any other place to play football, or any other division. But bro, you got to show up every week because it’s gonna be so tight. It’s gonna come down to tie-breakers, it’s gonna come down to division wins, to conference wins.”
Watson saw first hand, even while injured, just how tightly contested the AFC North can be this past season. The Browns were one of three teams from the division to make the playoffs, along with Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Even the Bengals finished above. 500, marking the first time since the merger every team in a division had a winning record.
It won’t get any easier in 2024 with Burrow back in the fold coming off an injury of his own and Jackson coming off an MVP season. At least Watson has Clark’s advice to fall back in next season.
