Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Cleveland Browns

Last chance for Jameis Winston

This season will be crucial for answering the most important question regarding Buccaneers franchise. Is Jameis Winston their quarterback of the future? To help them solve the puzzle, they dragged Bruce Ariens out of retirement and gave him the head coaching job. Working with numerous NFL quarterbacks over the last 20 years makes him a perfect choice to help Winston play up to his full potential and do so consistently. And from what we could see in the first two weeks of the preseason, his coaching philosophy did not change one bit. Similar to his tenure in Arizona, the offense is not shying away from attacking defenses vertically. Whether it was Winston, Gabbert or Griffin under the center, they were often looking for big plays downfield. Especially using play fakes to draw the linebackers in and then strike through the middle.

Cleveland Browns bandwagon

It is funny how little is needed to turn the public's perception of a team upside down. Not even a full year ago, Cleveland Browns were considered the worst team in the league. They were mocked and portrayed as the most dysfunctional franchise in the league. Most people were skeptical about picking Baker Mayfield at No.1 in the 2018 NFL Draft. But, he proved his doubters wrong from the moment he took over the starting job from Tyrod Taylor in that TNF game vs Jets.

They sacked Hue Jackson and promoted Freddie Kitchens to a head coach. While general manager John Dorsey pulled a couple of gutsy moves by bringing in players like Odell Beckham Jr, Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson, and Kareem Hunt. All of a sudden, Browns are probably the most popular bet as the Superbowl winners. They are currently priced at 15-1, which is quite a drop from last year's 200-1.

Buccaneers vs Browns best bets

Handicapping these preseason games can be very tricky at times. You have to correctly interpret what some of the coaches are saying in their press conferences because not all of them are trying to win these preseason games. Some of them are using these live reps to evaluate the players at the end of the roster. Some to decide the position battles and others to give their starers more time to adjust to new schemes. Kitchens was non-committal about how much his starters are going to play in this game. That, combined with the fact that both Mayfield and Stanton didn't play at all last week, is a sign that he's not eager to put his players into harm's way. I believe that he thinks they've got most things figured out already. So I don't expect Mayfield to be in there for the entire first half, which is the usual treatment for the starters in week 3 of the preseason. And if that is true, should Browns really be laying 3 points on the road? Home field advantage is not as big in the preseason, but it's never easy playing in Floridian humidity at this time of year.

Speaking of the humidity. It can really wear down the big guys playing on the line. Especially the ones on the defensive side, after some long drives. It results in a better push for the OL and more running room. It is easier to move the ball down the field and eventually put it into the endzone. But that is not the only reason why I like the over in this game. As I already mentioned, Tampa Bay will air the ball out a lot under Ariens. Defensively, I noticed that they are very aggressive with the blitzing. It's a double-edged sword. If you don't get there, you can get burned by some big plays and that is what happened to them a couple of times in previous games. In the third game of the preseason, when opponent is starting to gameplan for you, those blitzes might get picked up at higher rate and offer some big opportunities for Browns offense.

Pick 1: Buccaneers ML @2.48 (2 units) Pick 2: over 42.5 points @1.94 ( 2 units)