Dawgs By Nature
In our weekly odds post on Monday, we noted that the Cleveland Browns were 1.5 point underdogs against the 1-7 New York Jets. While it’s embarrassing on one hand to be underdogs to a team that just barely escaped with their first win before the bye week, the spread was understandable due to the Browns’ poor offense, bad record (2-6), and the fact that the Jets were at home.
But now, things have taken a turn. It is Tuesday, and the NFL trade deadline has passed. Both the Browns and the Jets executed trades, and when the dust settled, the odds had quite the shift: Cleveland is now favored by 2.5 points. The only other time Cleveland was favored this season was against the Dolphins a few weeks ago, and the Browns trounced them by a score of 31-6.
Cleveland’s trade-deadline deal saw them deal Joe Tryon to the Bears for a draft pick, which was basically a meaningless move. It was the Jets who made the big headlines, stocking up ammunition of future first-round picks in exchange for giving away their top two defenders on defense. Even though Cleveland’s offense has been terrible, it’s hard to imagine a team replacing those key players on a bad team and coming away with a victory during the week. That’s the reason for the 4-point odds swing in Cleveland’s favor now.
The over/under for the game has also jumped by one point up to 37.5.
