Baker/OBJ’s 2019 Cleveland Browns will make the playoffs – wanna bet?

After the Cleveland Browns made several moves to start the 2019 off-season, their odds to make the playoffs next season have dramatically increased.

The Odell Beckham Jr. trade has caused grown Cleveland Browns fans to weep and squeal like drunken bridesmaids and now the city of Cleveland seems to expect their pro football team to AT LEAST win the AFC North.

Want to put some money on that?

Of course, you can now, legally, ever since the SCOTUS decided last year every state in the U.S. should be allowed to gamble on football…if they want to, that is.

And now Browns fans have a reason to get in on the excitement.

Odds makers have been following the Browns ongoing rebuild under general manager John Dorsey, and now they’ve released a whole series of bets that you can make on how well the Dorsey-Kitchens-Baker-OBJ Browns will do next season.

The numbers are shocking. But in a good way.

Quick reality check

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Right before the 2018 season, these were the odds of the Cleveland Browns succeeding:

• Browns Super Bowl Odds: +9500
• Browns AFC Championship Odds: +4500
• Browns AFC North Odds: +1200

Keep in mind what those numbers imply: a + sign means that you win that amount if you bet $100. In other words, back then bookies were so convinced the 2018 Browns would not win the AFC North, they were willing to pay $1,200 to your $100 if it came true. Ouch.

But now check this out.

Right after acquiring OBJ, Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson and a few other athletic gems, these are the current odds of the Cleveland Browns in 2019-20:

• Browns Super Bowl Odds: +1400
• Browns AFC Championship Odds: +800
• Browns AFC North Odds: +125

Notice, that same bookie will only pay you $125 now for your $100 bet on the Browns winning the AFC North.

Nicely done, Brownies.

To put those huge Dorsey-induced shifts in further perspective, compare the Browns odds of winning the AFC North next year to the rest of the division:

• Cleveland Browns +125
• Pittsburgh Steelers +225
• Baltimore Ravens +300
• Cincinnati Bengals +800

That’s right, Dawg Pound, your Browns are now favored.

That bears repeating:

The 2019-20 Cleveland Browns are now favored to win the AFC North.

[pause for hoorahs and more drunken Bridesmaid-ian chaos]

Oh, and now there are only two NFL teams with better odds than the Browns to win the AFC Championship next season, the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots (+400) and the Kansas City Chiefs (+450).

Unreal.

And according to the folks who make a living doing this, the Browns now have the same chance to win the next Super Bowl as the Chicago Bears (+1400), and a better chance to win it than:

• Indianapolis Colts +1600
• Philadelphia Eagles +1600
• Los Angeles Chargers +1600
• Pittsburgh Steelers +2500
• Baltimore Ravens +4000

Just sayin’…

Even if you’re not a football gambler, it’s exciting to realize that the professional bookies are taking the Cleveland Browns seriously. Finally.

Now granted, the new Browns haven’t done jack squat yet, and Dorsey’s the first to point that out. But when the rest of the football world begins to have the same confidence in the Browns as the Dawg Pound, take that as a very good sign of this team’s potential.

The odds say that the 2019-20 Browns will go FullDorse next season and end up in the playoffs, and at this point anything less will be another huge disappointment.

But the good Dorsey willing, those sad Browns days in Cleveland are bygone and once again the AFC North Championship (and beyond) is realistically obtainable.

Bet on it.