They have the Bengals’ number in a way that most teams don’t – including beating them in 2021, the year Cincy made it to the Super Bowl.

“It’s going to be really fun,” cornerback Denzel Ward said. “While our biggest goal is to win, when it comes to taking them out, that’s what has to happen. “So that’s how we go about it and go from there.”

However, it goes beyond simply shattering a division rival’s dreams.

For one thing, in the NFL it’s difficult to just give up completely and not put in the effort – the game is so fast and physically demanding that you’d risk serious injury if you didn’t.

According to the players, this idea is simply not anchored in the team’s culture.

“I think just the heart and spirit of the team is a competitive spirit,” safety Rodney McLeod said Monday. “And we all recognize that this is our only chance to stay together as a Browns team in 2024-25. And our signature is on the season. And of course, things didn’t necessarily turn out the way we had hoped, but I feel like through it all, one thing is true: we stayed together.

“The spirit was always right. It was a fighting spirit.”

McLeod is right in this regard.

The Browns entered the season with legitimate Super Bowl expectations after going 11-6 last season and basically bouncing back with the best defense in the league.

But while they failed, there was no finger-pointing in the media, and there were no public fights when one phase of the game went well and others failed.

That’s true from the beginning of the season when Deshaun Watson and the offense struggled, to every other mishap, including last week against the Kansas City Chiefs.

In that final game, the offense turned the ball over six times while the defense forced nine punts, holding Patrick Mahomes to a 50% success rate, the worst single-game mark of the three-time Super Bowl winner’s career.

“We all imagined this season would be completely different, but that is our reality,” McLeod continued. “So one thing we can do is continue to work together because when you have something like that, you can build on that. And when you have men of good character in the locker room, you can build on that.”

There’s also just the tough nature of the NFL that will keep the guys going.

Of course, injuries are part of it. A guy like Delpit, who lost his rookie year in 2020 to a torn Achilles tendon, knows how fragile this career can be.

Even if a game doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of the season, you have to make it count.

“This is the NFL,” he said. “I have worked my whole life to be here. So I’m not going to take a week off or take anything for granted because it could be gone tomorrow.”

And there’s also the fact that boys are playing for their football lives.

Your film is your resume, and players need to show the Browns and other teams that they weren’t part of the problem in a disappointing year.

“Everyone is going to be watching this, from your family to this team to everyone across the NFL,” Myles Garrett said last week. “There is no guarantee that you will spend your entire career here, but teams will watch this film and use it to define you for the rest of your time in the league.

“So never take a snapshot for granted, never take a second for granted. So go out there, train as hard as you can and make the big plays. You want to be remembered by the guys you play with, your colleagues and also the coaches and the organizations that are willing to take a risk.”

Cancún can wait a few more weeks.