Thanks to an offseason in which they have added the likes of Odell Beckham Jr., Kareem Hunt, Olivier Vernon, and Sheldon Richardson, the Cleveland Browns are now the trendy pick to win the AFC North division next season.

Add former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Bart Scott as someone who feels that the Browns are now the team to beat in the division.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UYuO68VP2Y

It's amazing that we are even discussing this after all these years, and yet, here we are.

The Browns have been the laughing stock of the NFL for the better part of the last two decades. Cleveland has not made the playoffs since the 2002-03 campaign, representing the longest active postseason drought in the league.

What's more, prior to 2018, the Browns had won just four games between 2015 and 2017 and actually went winless in 2017.

However, Cleveland went on to tally a record of 7-8-1 this past season, marking its best finish since winning 10 games all the way back in 2007, which is currently the franchise's only winning campaign since last making the playoffs.

The Browns even briefly found themselves in playoff contention in the second half of this past season, and even though that time was short-lived, it displayed a massive step forward for an organization that has been one of the worst in sports for quite some time.

Cleveland's run really began when it fired Hue Jackson as head coach and replaced him with Gregg Williams, as the Browns proceeded to go 5-3 after making the change.

However, Cleveland decided not to bring Williams back for 2019 and instead promoted offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens to head coach.