The Todd Monken era got started with a thud, as the Cleveland Browns were routed but the Jacksonville Jaguars, 34-10, to open the 2026 campaign. 

What did we learn from this blowout loss? 

This isn't something anyone really learned today. Most everybody who follows or covers this team knew that starting Watson was likely going to be a disaster. It didn't take long to be reminded that the 9-year veteran simply doesn't have it anymore. 

On the sixth play of the opening drive, with Cleveland approaching the red zone, Watson threw a terrible interception looking for Jerry Jeudy on a curl. LB Foyesade Oluokun was sitting underneath it, though, in coverage, read Watson's eyes and picked it off. It was a pick Watson had thrown during camp, as well. It was all downhill from there. 

Watson finished the game 16-of-22, for 205 yards and a touchdown. Who didn't see this coming? 

On a day that started with the news that Myles Garrett was having knee surgery and headed to the IR for his new team the Los Angeles Rams, the victory laps ended in Jacksonville almost as soon as the ball was kicked. 

Cleveland's defense got shredded by Trevor Lawrence in the first half to the beat of 155 yards and 3 touchdowns. And Lawrence was constantly standing in clean pockets without much thread of anyone getting close to him. 

Meanwhile, Jared Verse's debut was a largely forgettable one, as he recorded 4 combined tackles and just 1 TFL. 

Perhaps the one silver lining in an abomination of a season opener is that the Browns' special teams units look much improved from a season ago. The highlight of the day was Rahiem Sanders 74-yard kickoff return early in the third quarter. The play wound up setting up Cleveland's first score of the day, an Andre Szmyt 40-yard FG. It's hard to remember the Browns having a return that big of any kind. 

Sanders totaled 130 yards on returns, while Malachi Corley had one for 34 yards and Dylan Sampson had two for 64 but left the game due to a knee injury. 

Speaking of Szmyt, he picked up where he left off in camp....

There was a clear attempt by the Jaguars to target Browns CB Myles Harden in the slot, and it worked. Harden struggled to track Parker Washington on a number of occasions from that alignment, including on the Jags first touchdown of the game. Harden bit on Washington's outside step, then got caught up in a pick with Carson Schwesinger and couldn't recover. 

It's a trend that other teams are likely to follow as the season progresses. 

After so much talk about procedural penalties throughout the preseason, they continued into the regular season. In total, Cleveland finished the game with 11 accepted penalties against them, four of those were some sort of presnap issue, including two false starts and two delay of games. At one point in the second half, the Browns almost committed another delay of game, but Monken burned a timeout to prevent it. 

These are things that needed to be ironed out in the preseason, but they persist. 

A 46-yard garbage-time touchdown throw to Denzel Boston was the main highlight from the day for Cleveland. He caught only two passes for 59 yards and the lone score, but it was a nice moment in a miserable performance for the Browns. 

His rookie companion in the room, KC Concepcion had a few moments as well, catching 4 passes for 43 yards. He did cough up a very costly fumble, though, a few minutes into the second quarter that turned into a a Jags TD. 

Still, if more games like this are on the horizon, the growth of those two, along with rookie tackle Spencer Fano, and rookie OL Austin Barber, who started at guard, is something everyone fans actually can get excited about.