What last year's Browns-Chiefs playoff game tells us about their Week 1 matchup - The Athletic

Observations on a rewatch of last January’s Cleveland Browns-Kansas City Chiefs divisional playoff game, which the Chiefs held on to win 22-17. This is not intended to be a full breakdown of that game, but rather a preview of how each team might build its attack for Sunday’s season opener, which also will be played in Arrowhead Stadium. 

• Let’s not file this under excuses but rather reasons the Browns focused their offseason on a significant defensive overhaul: The Chiefs pretty much got what they wanted in this game. Patrick Mahomes does that against lots of teams, and he did it to the Browns from mostly clean pockets before being injured in the third quarter.

Nine months later, only four Browns defensive starters (Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Ronnie Harrison and Sione Takitaki) from that game are still on the team. Three starters (B.J. Goodson, Adrian Clayborn and Kevin Johnson) are not on NFL rosters, and Karl Joseph is on the Steelers’ practice squad. In large part because Garrett was dealing with the lingering effects of a November bout with COVID-19, Porter Gustin played 50 percent of the defensive snaps. Gustin is now on the Browns’ practice squad.

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