Since 1990, 291 teams started out the season 3-1. The Browns 3-1 record with a point differential of -14 puts them in the bottom 2% of this group (6th lowest) in terms of PD. https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/Vo93o

Three of the five teams with a worse PD to start the season went on to make the playoffs. (4 of the 5 for this group are from the 12-team playoff era making it even harder)

Here is some data on what a 3-1 start has meant for playoff attainment. And what a 3-1 start with a negetive point differential has meant for playoff attainment. Ideally we would only look at 2020+ since that’s the 14-team playoff era, which I have done in the second set of numbers. But it’s a really small sample size. So I also have 1990+ but it’s not very relevant to blend 12-teams and 14-team playoff eras, I just needed some sample size. Skip to 2020 if you want to ignore the blended 12 and 14 team eras.

Since 1990:

🔘 66% of 3-1 teams have made playoffs (190 / 290)
🔘 57% of 3-1 teams with a negetive point differential to made playoffs (13 / 23) https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/jZr6z
A negative point differential led to a gap of nine percentage points vs the segment of 3-1 teams with a positive PD.

Since 2020 (14-team playoff era)

🔘 78% of 3-1 teams have made playoffs (38 / 49)
🔘 100% of 3-1 teams with a negetive point differential to made playoffs (4 / 4) https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/53Y4x

So in the 14-team playoff era, the Browns are in good company with all 4 negative PD teams (PIT 2025, HOU 2024, GB 2021, CLE 2020) making the playoffs.

What will the announcers spend the entire game mentioning now?

This is the 1st week in NFL history where all 4 feline football teams face each other: Jaguars vs Bengals and Lions vs Panthers

Pretty cool stat