Is Jason Campbell Enough to Lead Cleveland Browns to Playoffs?

Since the Cleveland Browns returned from their Art Modell-imposed exile in 1999, the team has advanced to the postseason once. That's mostly due to a carousel of starting quarterbacks so terrible it boggles the mind.

Tim Couch, Ty Detmer, Doug Pederson, Spergon Wynn, Kelly Holcomb, Jeff Garcia, Luke McCown, Trent Dilfer, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Ken Dorsey, Bruce Gradkowski, Colt McCoy, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, Brandon Weeden, Thad Lewis and Brian Hoyer have all started games for the Browns since they rejoined the NFL.

Go ahead, take a minute and drink in all that awful.

Jason Campbell is the latest starting quarterback in Cleveland, and in the two starts since the 31-year-old took over, something both exciting and terrifying has become evident.

With Campbell under center, the Browns have a real chance of making a run at the playoffs.

Stop Laughing. I'm not kidding.

Campbell was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week after his three-touchdown performance in a Week-9 win over the Baltimore Ravens. It was his second straight solid game for the Browns, who gave the Kansas City Chiefs all they could handle at Arrowhead before falling 23-17 the week before.

Week	Opp.	Comp.	Att.	Yards	TD	INT	Rating
8	@KC	22	36	293	2	0	105.4
9	BAL	23	35	262	3	0	116.6

Consider this: In the four games Weeden started this year, the Browns are winless. In the five started by Hoyer and Campbell, the Browns are 4-1 with three wins over teams that made the playoffs last year.

Granted, saying that the Cleveland running game is pathetic would imply that there is a running game, but Hoyer and Campbell have shown this year that with something resembling a competent NFL quarterback, the Browns are a competitive football team.

The surprise to many is that Campbell is playing like a competent NFL quarterback. The ninth-year veteran was horrific for the Chicago Bears in 2012, and it's hard to get excited about a player who lost a training camp competition to Weeden.

Well, it looks like the fix was in because Campbell has been light years better than Weeden in game action this year.

It's not like Campbell hasn't had his moments in the past. In Campbell's first full season as the starter in Washington (2007), the Redskins made the playoffs. He had the 2011 Oakland Raiders in contention before suffering a season-ending collarbone injury, which was the impetus for the Great Carson Palmer Robbery.

Campbell's no superstar, but he's shown the ability to be an above-average starter in the NFL in the past. Head coach Rob Chudzinski sang Campbell's praises after the Baltimore win, according to Tom Withers of the Associated Press via The Chillicothe Gazette:

"

You saw him from a leadership standpoint. The calmness out there, the ability in that final drive to make plays when that was crunch time and in a critical part in the game, and just his presence with our younger guys. What he’s doing is really giving us a life.

"

In a weak AFC North, where a 9-7 record may well win the division, that just might be enough.

Team	Wins/Losses/Ties	Streak	GB
Cincinnati Bengals	6-3-0	L1	-
Cleveland Browns	4-5-0	W1	2
Baltimore Ravens	3-5-0	L3	2.5
Pittsburgh Steelers	2-6-0	L2	3.5

The Browns currently sit two games back of the 6-3 Cincinnati Bengals, who just a week ago looked to be running away with the division.

However, the Bengals didn't just lose a football game last week in Miami. They also lost star defensive tackle Geno Atkins to a torn ACL. Combined with the loss of middle linebacker Rey Maualuga, the Bengals now have a gaping hole in the middle of their defense.

This week, while the Browns are on their bye, the Bengals travel to face a desperate Baltimore Ravens team. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the Ravens win that game.

Then things get interesting.

Week	Opponent	Record*
11	at Cincinnati Bengals	6-3
12	Pittsburgh Steelers	2-6
13	Jacksonville Jaguars	0-8
14	at New England Patriots	7-2
15	Chicago Bears	5-3
16	at New York Jets	5-4
17	at Pittsburgh Steelers	2-6

The Browns head to Cincinnati after the bye to face the Bengals in what would be a huge game. Were the Browns to hand the Bengals what would be their third straight loss, suddenly the Browns would be a .500 team that's half a game out of first place. They'd also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, having already beaten Cincinnati back in Week 4.

The star of that game, and Cleveland's season to date, was the defense. The Browns were stifling defensively in a 17-6 win, holding the Bengals to 63 rushing yards and forcing a pair of turnovers.

That fourth-ranked defense has also been a big part of Campbell's success this year. Only the Kansas City Chiefs have more sacks than Cleveland's 31. Ray Horton's hyper-aggressive 3-4 defense keeps the Browns and Campbell close.

That, in turn, has allowed Campbell to play within himself and not force the action, even with no run game to speak of. The result has been five touchdown passes vs. no interceptions and a historic passer rating for Campbell:

If the Browns are going to stay in the race, it's imperative that Campbell avoid the sorts of incredibly foolish turnovers that cost the Browns their game with Detroit earlier this year.

Weeden threw that pass on purpose, folks.

Mind you, we're still talking about an uphill battle. Four of Cleveland's last seven games are on the road. There are trips to New England and New York and a home tilt with the Chicago Bears.

There are also, however, two tilts with a reeling Pittsburgh Steelers team and a game with the winless Jacksonville Jaguars.

In fact, one could make the argument that a playoff push actually hurts the team in the long run. Let's be frank. If the Browns were to somehow make the playoffs, it's almost certainly a one-and-done deal. Maybe they get past the Wild Card round before getting thumped in Denver or Indianapolis.

Every win drops the Browns in next year's draft.

Fans in Cleveland don't want to hear that nonsense. Over a decade of misery, despair and disappointments of all shapes and sizes has been replaced by a bewildering new emotion they can't quite put their finger on.

It's hope.

If the Cleveland defense continues to play at the level it has been, affording Campbell the opportunity to make smart decisions with the ball, then that hope is going to be around for a while.

Hope for football in January, and hope that fans of the Browns will never, ever have to hear Brandon Weeden announced as the starting quarterback in Cleveland again.

Amen.