{"id":704163,"date":"2026-01-25T15:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/704163\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T15:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:21:15","slug":"nfl-playoffs-former-browns-rb-elevated-for-afc-championship-with-super-bowl-chance-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/704163\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL playoffs: Former Browns RB elevated for AFC Championship with Super Bowl chance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The Cleveland Browns may be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawgsbynature.com\/cleveland-browns-coaching-staff\/115749\/browns-head-coach-search-grant-udinski-nate-scheelhaase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:just days away;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">just days away<\/a> from ending their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawgsbynature.com\/cleveland-browns-coaching-staff\/115373\/browns-head-coach-search-tracker-updated\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:long head coach search;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">long head coach search<\/a> and the NFL is just a couple of weeks away from ending their season with the Super Bowl. The Browns have a long way to go before they are considered in the same position as the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams, and Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A look at those four teams shows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawgsbynature.com\/cleveland-browns-news\/116049\/which-former-browns-represented-nfl-postseason-this-year\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a lot of former Cleveland players;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">a lot of former Cleveland players<\/a> and a distinct need for a good coach (young (Sean McVay, Mike Macdonald), old (Sean Payton), and in the middle (Mike Vrabel) all can work) and really good quarterbacks selected high in the NFL draft:<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Matthew Stafford \u2013 #1 overall pick<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Sam Darnold \u2013 #3 overall pick<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Drake Maye \u2013 #3 overall pick<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Bo Nix (now injured) \u2013 #12 overall pick<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Saturday, the Patriots added another former Browns player to their AFC Championship roster, via a practice squad elevation, RB D\u2019Ernest Johnson:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Johnson was a great story making Cleveland\u2019s roster in 2019 after joining the AAF fresh off a fishing boat catching mahi mahi. Johnson\u2019s best year came in 2021, his third with the Browns, when he had 100 carries for 534 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">After four years in Cleveland, Johnson joined the Jacksonville Jaguars for parts of two seasons and was with the Arizona Cardinals, along with New England, this season. Johnson has become a reliable kick returner and overall special teams player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Browns may be just days away from ending their long head coach search and the NFL&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[114,390,925,86,85,54,2337,258,833,7,125,58,9228,32,2860,838,1167,249,6,1878,3307,1813,261,582],"class_list":{"0":"post-704163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-afc-championship","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-bo-nix","11":"tag-browns","12":"tag-cleveland","13":"tag-cleveland-browns","14":"tag-clevelandbrowns","15":"tag-denver-broncos","16":"tag-drake-maye","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","19":"tag-los-angeles-rams","20":"tag-mack-hollins","21":"tag-matthew-stafford","22":"tag-mike-macdonald","23":"tag-mike-vrabel","24":"tag-new-england","25":"tag-new-england-patriots","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-sam-darnold","28":"tag-sean-mcvay","29":"tag-sean-payton","30":"tag-seattle-seahawks","31":"tag-the-browns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115956421956923110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}