The Cleveland Browns were 5-11 last year.  But they have blown up the coaching staff (which was likely a very good thing), as they are going in a new direction.  The schedule is very conducive to the Browns having a pretty good year in 2011.  They only have 5 games against teams with winning records the whole year!  One of those is against the likely Peyton Manning less Colts, and they don’t play either the Ravens or Steelers until December.  With all of this in mind, I’m taking the over with the Browns as 8 or 9 wins in 2011 is very likely.

If the Browns were starting Brady Quinn from day #1 I might be tempted to take the over.  The Browns will likely be a much better football team than they were in 2006 but they have a really tough schedule this season.  Plus, the Browns did not address the defensive line like they needed to in the off-season adding only DE Robaire Smith and backup DT Shaun Smith.  So the Browns will likely have problems stopping the run again and it’s hard to win that way.  The Browns will likely try to ride Jamal Lewis’ running to keep the opposition off of the field and keep Charlie Frye away from making big mistakes.  Take the under but it will be close.