Cleveland Browns Taking Action Even Though They Are NFL Longshot

Scott Morris | August 10, 2016

Taking a look at the futures board for the NFL on most sportbooks, it becomes obviously that bookmakers have pegged the Cleveland Browns as the NFL’s worst team.

Football fans and bettors should not be surprised by the odds makers’ choice of the Browns as the bottom of the barrel this season. Cleveland has not had a winning season since it was 10-6 during 2007.

The Browns have not even reached the NFL postseason since 2002 when they lost a wildcard game. Cleveland is coming off a 3-13 season and was in the cellar of the AFC North for the fifth straight year.

The Browns are therefore no surprise as the long shot of the league at 200 to 1 to win Super Bowl LI. The Browns are double the odds of the next longest shot.

The win total for the Browns of 4.5 with the OVER on -155 is the lowest in the NFL by one full game.

Many of the online sportsbooks have already posted the first 16 weeks of game lines for each team and Cleveland is not favored in any of their games. The smallest spread was 2 points as a home dog to San Diego.

However, with all the odds going against them, the Browns have taken quite a bit of action or their Week 1 game at Philadelphia. The line on many sites has been reduced to Philadelphia -6.5 from -8.5.

However, the case of bets being place for the Browns might not be because bettors like the Browns. There is a sound case for bettors not liking the Eagles.

Smart money has shown some negative sentiment toward the Eagles. One well known and respected bettor is said to have bet against Philadelphia in 13 of the team’s 16 games.

The Browns have taken action as well on the futures board for winning the AFC North. Bettors have bet down the opening odds of 35 to 1 to just 20 to 1. The majority of that action is small money, but it at least is coming in.

The futures bet of whether the Browns make the playoffs has the NO at -1000 and the YES up to +750.

With a new head coach in Hue Jackson and a new signal caller in Robert Green III, the Browns are much different from last season. Griffin III was named the starter on Monday for the Browns.