Browns open offseason with NFL-worst odds to win Super Bowl 53
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns have nowhere to go but up after finishing at 0-16, and the odds are not in their favor when it comes to dreaming of a title next season.
The Cleveland Browns are in the opening stages of the best time of the year for the franchise – the offseason.
That is especially true this year as the Browns are coming off just the second 0-16 season in NFL history, part of an historic two-year run under head coach Hue Jackson that has seen the team lose 31 of its past 32 games.
The Browns are flush with draft picks – 12 in all – and salary cap space – more than $100 million at last count – all thanks to the heavy lifting done by former executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown.
Brown is gone of course, while Jackson inexplicably remains on the sidelines, so it is up to general manager John Dorsey to execute the next phase of the current rebuilding plan, one that always targeted this offseason as the tipping point.
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Dorsey has put together a formidable front office staff that is being universally praised for being heavy on “football guys,” which should make Browns fans eager for what comes next, the climb from 1-31 to an actual competitive team is still going to take some time.
That’s why it’s not really all that surprising to see the Browns being listed as the NFL team with the longest odds to hoist the Lombardi trophy next February at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
According to the website oddshark.com, the Browns join the New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills at +10,000, which is equivalent to 100-to-1 odds for those of you scoring at home.
The top of the list looks familiar as the New England Patriots are favored to win the Super Bowl at +300, followed by the Green Bay Packers (+800), Philadelphia Eagles (+850), Pittsburgh Steelers (+1,000) and the Minnesota Vikings (+1,200).
It may look like a safe bet to install the Patriots as the favorites, but history is not on their side after losing Super Bowl 52 on Sunday. The last team to lose the Super Bowl and make it back the following year were the Buffalo Bills in 1993. You have to go all the way back to the Miami Dolphins of 1972 to find a team that lost the Super Bowl and then came back the next year to win it – and the Dolphins had to post a perfect season to pull that off.
As for the Browns, it will be almost impossible for the team to not show some kind of improvement this fall. Although if there is a team that can get worse than 0-16 it could be the Browns.
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But before we can start dreaming of playoff wins and Super Bowl appearances, the Browns need to start focusing on simply winning some games, preferably within the AFC North Division. But after what we have all witnessed the past two years, any win that actually counts would be appreciated.