The Cleveland Browns have a relatively easy schedule in 2026 with just five games against teams that made the playoffs last year, two of which are divisional games against the Pittsburgh Steelers. All those matchups take place prior to the Week 11 bye so if this team can get off to a good start, it could be able to ride the momentum down the stretch to a potential surprising playoff bid if the quarterback room can take a step forward.
It won’t be easy to do that with a daunting matchup at the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1. Jacksonville is fresh off a 13-win campaign and will be hungry to avenge its Wild Card loss to the Buffalo Bills last postseason, which is why most analysts don’t believe the Browns have much of a chance next Sunday.
ESPN Cleveland shared NFL.com’s predictions for the game, and Browns fans might want to cover their eyes for this one. All ten analysts predicted a Jags win, with nine of the ten projecting the Jags to win by at least two scores and Brandon Perna even going so far as to predict a 48-10 beatdown.
https://t.co/ZwswV3Q0kr has released their week 1 Browns vs Jaguars predictions 🧐🧐🧐
Do you think the Browns will pull off the upset? pic.twitter.com/fPf0pke0XS
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) September 3, 2026
Interestingly, the Browns haven’t lost to the Jaguars since 2017 and Deshaun Watson is 7-1 against them in his career. Of course, both of those stats have caveats since the Browns have only played the Jaguars three times over that span and the Jaguars, quite frankly, weren’t very good for most of the past decade, but it’s still worth noting since nobody believes the Browns can win this game.
The other interesting subplot is that this is the first matchup between these two teams since their blockbuster trade during the 2025 draft that landed Travis Hunter in Jacksonville and Mason Graham and a bunch of picks in Cleveland. Hunter may have a little extra motivation since the Browns made the shocking decision to pass on him and it will be interesting to see how head coach Liam Coen deploys him heading into his sophomore season.
This will be a great early test for the Browns to see if they’re capable of a surprising year. Hopefully these predictions make it to the Browns’ bulletin board in the locker room to fire them up a bit more.
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