Browns NFL draft Week 16 rooting guide: Injuries to former contenders should help move CLE up

Fans of the Cleveland Browns know this situation well. Heck, with the holidays in full swing, families of Browns fans, who don’t even follow football, know this situation well. Playing for NFL draft position is nothing new in Cleveland. DBN has had a “Race to the Bottom” much more often than our “Race to the Playoffs.”

The 2026 NFL draft class may only have two top quarterbacks: Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore. Both are still alive in the College Football Playoff, with neither required to enter the NFL draft (RS Junior, RS Sophomore). With Shedeur Sanders struggling to lock down the starting role for the future, 2026 NFL draft positioning is vital for the Browns.

Heading into Week 16, with the Buffalo Bills coming to town as huge favorites, Cleveland has seen a little injury luck for two of the teams ahead of them in the NFL draft order. A look at the Browns rooting guide for Week 16 and some notes from those games.

• Bills over Browns
• Giants over Vikings: Minnesota has been eliminated from playoff contention, had to turn their plane around last night and return, which delayed their departure for a few hours, and they lost key pieces in Jonathan Greenard, Joshua Metellus and Christian Darrisaw for the season. Javon Hargrave will also miss this week’s game. New York will have more to play for this week.
• Titans over Chiefs: Not only did Kansas City lose Patrick Mahomes and get eliminated from the playoffs, but it also listed nine players as out for Sunday’s matchup, including a lot of key players: Trent McDuffie, Rashee Rice, Jawaan Taylor, Tygquan Thorton, Leon Chenal, Jaylon Moore, and Jake Briningstool. Tough to overcome all those losses with many Tennessee players playing hard to put good tape on the field for their next head coach.
• Raiders over Texans: Of the four most important games, this is the one that is least likely to go Cleveland’s way. Houston is fighting for their playoff lives and hasn’t ruled out multiple key players for Sunday, while Las Vegas seems to have given up most of the second half of the season.

If the Browns lose and at least two of the other games go their way, they will be slotted into the second overall pick heading out of Week 16. Cleveland is likely to hold the key tiebreaker over the rest of the teams that currently have two or three wins. Only one team with four or fewer wins, the New Orleans Saints, has a Strength of Schedule below .500.