PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Fans of the AFC North can only hope the scramble for the 2008 division championship will be as entertaining as the scrapping that went on at breakfast yesterday among the teams' four coaches to predict a winner.

Mike Tomlin, coach of the defending champion Steelers, picked the Cleveland Browns to win it.

Browns coach Romeo Crennel had a good laugh at that one and said his team first must find a way to beat the Steelers before it can think of winning the division. The Browns have lost nine in a row to the Steelers -- six under Crennel -- and 15 of their past 16 meetings.

Pittsburgh native Marvin Lewis, the Cincinnati Bengals coach who got his start in the pros with the Steelers under Bill Cowher, said the Steelers are the team to beat.

Only Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh declined to join the fray, perhaps because this is his first turn as a head coach.

Quite logically, none of the four beat his breast and declared his own team as the favorite to win the AFC North.

"You have to like what Cleveland has done," Tomlin reasoned. "They finished strong last year and have a good football team, they have all the major components back. They signed [quarterback Derek] Anderson to a long-term deal. They fortified their defensive front, some acquisitions, some big men who can play.

"So, they're probably the favorites at this point."

But?

"But there's no question anybody's capable of winning this thing."

The Browns certainly have been the talk of the division since the end of last season for all the moves they made. They traded a second-round draft pick to Green Bay for defensive tackle Corey Williams and sent a third-round draft choice and former Duquesne University cornerback Leigh Bodden to Detroit for defensive tackle/end Shaun Rogers.

Cleveland also signed free-agent wide receiver Donte Stallworth from the New England Patriots.

The Browns tied the Steelers with a 10-6 record but lost the tiebreaker because Cleveland lost both games to them. The combination of the Browns' additions and the Steelers' losses in four of their final five games last season has many picking the Browns to win their first division title since the old Browns did it in 1989.

Handicappers at Bodog put the Steelers as favorites among North teams to win the AFC championship at 11-1. The Browns are slightly behind at 12-1 with the Bengals 20-1 and the Ravens 25-1.

"I still think the Steelers are the team to beat," said Lewis, giving the most complete divisional assessment of the four coaches. "They won the division last year. They won the division two of the last four years.

"I think Cleveland continues to improve and did some things this offseason that will continue to help them."

Among the reasons Lewis likes the Steelers is the play of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who earned a Pro Bowl berth last season, one year after his season of distress.

Roethlisberger was one reason the Browns made their two trades for defensive linemen, Crennel said.

"The second game against Pittsburgh the last two years, we've been ahead in those games with a good chance to win," Crennel said. "We just didn't get it done. Their quarterback made plays for them and he won the games for them basically. So, hopefully, we can neutralize him a little bit with some of the guys we added to the team and be able to get over the hump."

The past three North Division championships were won by the Steelers, Ravens (2006) and Bengals (2005, although the Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl as a wild-card playoff team).

The Steelers remain the only team in the division to win a playoff game since Baltimore last did so in 2001. Cincinnati last won a playoff game in 1990 and Cleveland in '89.

And as for Tomlin picking the Browns this time around?

"Well of course that is what Mike would say," Crennel said. "I don't begrudge him saying that, and if I were in his position, I would say that also. So that's why I'm telling you [the Steelers] are the favorite and we have to catch [them] because we haven't beaten Pittsburgh, and until we beat Pittsburgh we probably won't win the division."