The Browns are touchdown underdogs for their regular-season-opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 9 at FirstEnergy Stadium.

 

Say what?

 

Yup, you read that correctly. The Browns are already 6½-point underdogs against the defensing AFC North champion Steelers.

 

But how can that be? The game isn’t for 4½ months. Certainly, the Steelers are the better team at this point and have been throughout the expansion era. However, a lot can change between now and then.

 

What if the Browns have a great performance in the NFL Draft in a few days, and the Steelers don’t?

 

What if several of the Steelers’ best players, including their most valuable player, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, miss the game with injuries and the Browns come in completely healthy?

 

Some – or even all – of those things could happen. We just don’t know. And it would definitely affect the line on the game.

 

If that occurs, then the oddsmakers will deal with it then.

 

But right now, the Steelers are 6 ½-point favorites, which is fair. And that’s all that matters.

 

So what’s going on?

 

It’s this: The betting spreads not just for Browns-Steelers, but for all the 15 other opening-week games, were released by BetOnline.AG last Thursday night right after the NFL schedule came out. In this world of instant gratification and jumping to conclusions on everything – come on, why wait? – we should not be surprised. I’m shocked that the people at BetOnline stopped with opening-week. What didn’t they just go out and handicap the rest of the 240 games on the regular-season schedule?

 

Good question. Perhaps we should ask them?

 

For what it’s worth – which is not a lot in late April – here are the lines for the remainder of the Week 1 games:

 

Philadelphia -4½ vs. Atlanta (Thursday night)

Minnesota -5 vs. San Francisco
Indianapolis 1½ vs. Cincinnati
Baltimore -3 vs. Buffalo
Jacksonville -3 at New York Giants
New Orleans -7 vs. Tampa Bay
New England -6½ vs. Houston
Tennessee -1½ at Miami
LA Chargers -3 vs. Kansas City
Denver -1 vs. Seattle

Carolina -2½ vs. Dallas

Arizona PICK vs. Washington
Green Bay -8 vs. Chicago (Sunday night)
Detroit -6½ vs. New York Jets (Monday night)
LA Rams PICK at Oakland (Monday night)

 

Grab your money and call your bookies before it’s too late.