As he celebrated the Cleveland Browns‘ postseason-clinching victory over the New York Jets on Thursday night, David Njoku decided to take a look at some receipts.
That included one from NFL.com’s Adam Rank, who had projected the Browns to go 6-11 during the 2023 campaign during his preseason predictions.
“I’m sure when everybody got hurt, everybody doubted us,” Njoku told reporters in the locker room following Cleveland’s latest win, which improved the Browns’ record to 11-5. “Everybody said we weren’t going to do whatever. There’s a guy, Adam Rank — that guy sucks. We hold our own fate. We pushed through. We earned that. The guys in this locker room should be proud of that, but understand that there’s a lot more that we can do.”
David Njoku after the #Browns clinched the playoffs on Thursday Night Football:
"I'm sure when everybody got hurt, everybody doubted us. Everybody said we weren't going to do whatever. There's a guy, Adam Rank, that guy sucks." pic.twitter.com/eYWd3nfTYN
— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) December 29, 2023
While the manner in which he made his preseason prediction was somewhat odd — he went through Cleveland’s schedule assigning wins and losses to each game without much explanation — it wasn’t necessarily out of line. The Browns entered the 2023 season with no shortage of question marks, including Deshaun Watson’s disappointing play to end the 2022 campaign and a defense that had been one of the league’s worst. Although a 6-11 prediction was on the negative side of Cleveland’s potential outcomes, it was also a defensible prediction considering the uncertainty surrounding the Browns and the difficulties of the AFC North.
That’s the thing about preseason predictions though (and why one could argue that there isn’t any upside to making them). Some are going to be right and some are going to be wrong. And it’s the latter that you’re far more likely to be remembered for.
For what it’s worth, Rank has yet to publicly react to Njoku’s comment. He did, however, appear to poke fun at his Browns prediction in a social media post promoting his Cameo account earlier this week.
