NFL 100: Expectations for the league's centennial season

#4 The Cleveland Browns will make the AFC North a battle between them and Pittsburgh

Cleveland Browns fans can look forward to a winning season

For the first time in what seems like forever, there is hope and excitement surrounding the city of Cleveland and its beloved Browns. Years of collecting draft picks and running away with the top selections of the draft is finally paying off and the busts have been eliminated.

The Browns now have a coaching and management group that strive for the winning culture and building that through finding talent, and this offseason they did just that. General manager John Dorsey went out with his draft and player capital and took advantage of teams looking to rid themselves of players whose incredible talent had been forgotten in off the field media circuses.

The biggest victim were the New York Giants, who sent them generational talent Odell Beckham Jr and Olivier Vernon in what has yet to be disproven as a disadvantaged deal.

With these pieces coming together, along with quarterback Baker Mayfield, who's already proven he can be something special, the Browns are prepared to make the biggest NFL cinderella story in the 100th season. They have all the pieces necessary to do so, now it’s up to them to live up the hype and not let the personalities on the team be their downfall.

If all works well, expect the Browns to be competing with the perennial AFC North leader Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bengals are too much of a dysfunctional football team whose years of holding onto failure has set them back. The Ravens can make things interesting, but that will depend heavily on the performance of quarterback Lamar Jackson.

The 2019 schedule poses some big challenges in the beginning, with the Jets, Rams, Patriots, and Seahawks, but if Cleveland can take some of those and then handle their division matchups then its playoff talks in Cleveland. Anyone know how long it’s been since those two words—playoffs and Cleveland, have been used in the same sentence?

Once the NFL season hits December, expect the watchful eyes to be on the Steelers-Browns race in the AFC North. This may be a risky statement, but with the Steelers' recent departures, the Browns could sneak into the top dog role.