After a nearly six-month drought, we are about to have all of the NFL betting action that we can get our hands on in less than a month. College football will have its Week 0 games before bursting onto the scene the Thursday before Labor Day, and the NFL will have a little more than a month of preseason before the regular season gets underway. The NFL preseason will start on Thursday, August 3, 2023, when the Cleveland Browns square off against the New York Jets in the 2023 Hall of Fame Game. This will be the first time that Cleveland has played in this game since the franchise’s “inaugural” season in 1999. Meanwhile, the New York Jets have waited more than three decades to play in this game again as their last Hall of Fame Game appearance came in 1992.

The Cleveland Browns will definitely have the crowd at their backs in the Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. Only an hour separates Canton from downtown Cleveland, and many Browns fans will happily drive south to see their beloved Brownies in Canton although none of the starters are expected to play. This game will kick off at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

Cleveland Browns vs. New York Jets Betting Odds at BetRivers Sportsbook

Cleveland Browns -2.5 (-107)
New York Jets +2.5 (-114)
Total 33.5

Cleveland Browns vs. New York Jets Preview

Both the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets failed to make the playoffs in 2022, yet both teams enter the 2023 season with high expectations.

The Jets finished dead last in the AFC East with a 7-10 record, yet they have the fourth lowest Super Bowl odds of any team in the AFC in 2023. That’s because the Jets traded a bevy of draft picks for Aaron Rodgers in the offseason, and they are optimistic that the four-time NFL MVP has at least one more Super Bowl run in him. Although Rodgers will turn 40 in December, he is still playing at a high level. He was a First Team All-Pro in 2020 and 2021, and he was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team in the 2010s. Rodgers did have a down year in 2022, but that could have been due to his deteriorating relationship with Green Bay rather than a decline in his production due to age.

Rodgers will be the story of the season for the Jets, but he will not suit up for the franchise on Thursday night. Instead, former No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson is supposed to lead the team with veteran Tim Boyle and Chris Streveler behind him in the depth chart. Streveler is expected to see quite a bit of action, and that should be good for people who want to bet on the Jets in the Hall of Fame Game. He is a former CFL champion and an exciting dual-threat quarterback that can make things happen with his arm and his legs.

Cleveland is in a peculiar position. The Browns broke the bank when they made Deshaun Watson the highest-paid quarterback in league history (at the time), and they gave Watson a fully guaranteed contract. Fans hoped that he would finally solve the franchise’s historical problems at the pivot, but he had a disappointing debut. Watson completed just 58.2% of his passes for 1,102 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions, and that is not going to cut it.

The future of the franchise will not take the field on Thursday night, but the Browns will be starting a quarterback that has posted some good preseason numbers in Joshua Dobbs. We have seen Dobbs perform well with the Steelers in the past, especially during the preseason. The other two quarterbacks are big question marks though. Rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson from UCLA is expected to see a good chunk of action alongside Kellen Mond.

Cleveland Browns vs. New York Jets Prediction

I like the New York Jets depth at quarterback and the skill positions better than that of Cleveland, so I will be taking the Jets as a slight underdog per the NFL betting odds on Thursday night.