After the acquisition of WR Odell Beckham Jr., Las Vegas lists Cleveland at 14-1 to win the Super Bowl and 7-1 to win the AFC championship.
That’s nonsense. Mere flavor of the day garbage. It dilutes the potential impact if the sports books get flooded with knee-jerk bets on Cleveland (which often happens after apparently landscape-changing deals like yesterday's).
Offensively, the Browns are loaded with skill: OBJ, Jarvis Landry, Kareem Hunt and Baker Mayfield. If you believe Mayfield can build on what he did as a rookie QB, Cleveland is a reasonable pick to win the AFC North.
But the Browns won’t be my choice. #NotReadyForPrimeTime
The New York Giants got way better return for OBJ than the Steelers did for Antonio Brown.
The Giants landed a first-round pick, a third-round pick and Jabril Peppers, who had a breakout year in 2018 after moving from free safety to strong safety. Peppers is 23 and was a first-round selection in 2017.
The Giants got more because OBJ is over four years younger than Brown. And while OBJ is a handful, he’s not the soul-crushing jerk Brown is.
Brown set a world record for douchebaggery with how he exited Pittsburgh. Brown attacked the franchise and QB. He played the race card. He constantly (and falsely) made himself a victim. He quit in Week 17.
But if you want to keep the analysis strictly on the field, OBJ has more good seasons left than Brown does. OBJ is a better bet.
It’s a trade that helps both teams. But the Giants won that deal.
Images Courtesy of Getty Images.