Cleveland Browns owner is taking the over, adding to his long history of bad ideas

Jimmy Haslam wants you to bet on the Cleveland Browns. Speaking to NFL reporters Friday for the first time since late March, the managing and principal partner said the oddsmakers have his team pegged for 5.5 wins in 2026, and he is taking the over.

“I think the odds (on the season win total) are for us to win 5.5 games,” Haslam said. “I’d take the over.”

But why? No, really, hold up. Why? That is a bold position for a man who just traded away the best defensive player his franchise has ever employed. It is a boldness Browns fans have learned to fear.

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Cleveland Browns managing and principal partner Jimmy Haslam during training camp at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Haslam bought the Browns in 2012. Since then, the franchise has become the clearest example of how not to run a football team. The owner has churned through general managers, coaches and quarterbacks at a rate no other owner in the sport can match, and the results spurn an entire fan base. In 2016, under Haslam, the Browns went 1-15, then followed it with an 0-16 season. The team has cycled through more than 30 starting quarterbacks since he took over.

The signature mistake is the one Haslam himself finally admitted. In 2022, the Browns traded three first-round picks to the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson, then handed him a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract, the largest of its kind in league history. Watson faced dozens of civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct at the time of the trade. On the field, he has made just 19 starts in four seasons and has not played since October 2024.

“We took a big swing and miss with Deshaun,” Haslam told reporters last March. “We thought we had the quarterback; we didn’t, and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole.”

The Browns still carry roughly $80 million in salary-cap commitments to Watson even after his contract expires.

The reasons for skepticism are stacked high. The Browns went 5-12 last season and fired coach Kevin Stefanski in January. General manager Andrew Berry got ownership approval to trade Myles Garrett on June 1, absorbing $41 million in dead cap money spread across multiple seasons. Garrett set the NFL single-season sack record with 23 sacks last year. Now he is a Los Angeles Ram, and the franchise is trying to lure a return from eventual Hall of Famer Aaron Donald.

In return, the Browns got 25-year-old defensive end Jared Verse and three future draft picks, including a 2027 first-rounder. That is a rebuild trade, not a win-now trade. The quarterback room is a competition between Watson, who has thrown three interceptions in the first three practices of camp, and 2025 rookie Shedeur Sanders, who completed 56.6 percent of his passes with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions as a rookie.

The Browns have finished outside the top 10 in passer rating for 30 straight seasons, the longest such streak in league history. Their wide receivers averaged 86.3 receiving yards per game in 2025, the fewest by any team since the 2011 Jacksonville Jaguars. This is not a roster built to clear six wins.

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Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry speaks to the media during a press conference to introduce new head coach Todd Monken. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Berry, notably, did not match Haslam’s confidence. He framed the season around growth rather than wins.

“I keep saying that young doesn’t necessarily equal bad, (and) I don’t think that (youth) has to be a cop-out for expectation or performance,” Berry said. “But as we think about it, our goal going into the season is to be a tough and competitive team that develops and plays its best football towards the end.”

The general manager who built the roster is managing, if not outright tamping down, expectations. The owner who has presided over more than a decade of losing is telling you to bet the over.

Haslam has been wrong about his own team before, and he has said so out loud. Cleveland’s win total projection is a paltry 5.5 wins for a reason. Haslam, perhaps hat in hand, apologetically shrugging and meekly hoping for six wins, would be more appropriate. The only confidence he should have is in his tone-deaf reputation for sustained incompetency.