Best 2021 Cleveland Browns Future Bets

As the Cleveland Browns get set to kick off their 2021 NFL season on Sunday afternoon in Kansas City, now seems like the best possible time to take a gander at the latest odds for what could possibly happen this season for the team. 

Odell Beckham Jr. over 925.5 receiving yards (-112)

Yes, Beckham is coming off of a torn left ACL that ended his season prematurely in 2020, and yes, he’s not been the guy that the Browns thought they were getting when they traded for him all the way back in March of 2019. To say that Beckham’s tenure in Cleveland has been a bit of a disappointment would be an accurate statement. 

With all that said, it seems like expecting Beckham to finish out the year with less than 925.5 receiving yards is a fool’s errand. 

In his career, Beckham has never played a complete season and finished with less than 1,035 yards – his first year in Cleveland – and there’s no reason to expect that to happen now. 

When the fact that there are 17 games this season is added in, the number looks even more achievable. To reach that, Beckham would need to average 54.4 receiving yards per game. The only season he hasn’t reached that number on a per game basis was last year, when he averaged 45.6 yards per game in the seven games played. And even that number is a little skewed considering it counts the game in which he tore his ACL on the game’s first series. 

His 319 yards in six games would then average out to 53.1 yards per game, and that was before the Browns found their footing offensively. Maybe he’s not the same guy that reached 1,450 receiving yards in his second year in the NFL, but Beckham getting back to the 1,000-yard mark seems like a safe bet. 

Browns win the AFC North (+130)

Placing this wager 24 hours earlier would have brought more value to the Browns, who had a great case to be the champions of the AFC North for the first time before Baltimore had an awful practice on Thursday. The Ravens have presumably lost both running back Gus Edwards and defensive back Marcus Peters for the year to torn ACLs, injuries that reportedly happened on back-to-back plays in practice on Thursday. Every year there’s a snake bitten team in the NFL – see San Francisco, 2020 – and this year the Ravens are the early favorites to land that distinction. 

Now, all this seems like enough of a reason to bet against the Ravens, and that’s even before mentioning just how good the Browns should be. On paper, this is the best roster the Browns have had – by far – since their return to the NFL in 1999. Aside from being paper giants, there’s also tangible proof that the team knows what it takes to be great after last year’s 11-5 effort and a playoff victory. This is also a bet that holds much more value than betting the Browns over 10.5 wins at -130. If you want to bet on the Browns being good, this is the way to do it. 

Browns to win the Super Bowl (+1500)

You knew this had to make the list, right? These odds are the best the Browns have had to win the Super Bowl since they were reborn (I didn’t look that up, but there’s NO WAY there’s any other year they had this type of chance in Vegas). If it’s not this year, when will it be? 

This is certainly the longshot pick of the bunch, but let’s live a little, alright? Pick the Browns to win the Super Bowl, it’s a great value, and you know that you’ve been waiting to do this your entire life.