Fresh off a dominant 13-win campaign, Jacksonville faces a defensive powerhouse in Cleveland. Can the Jaguars capitalize on the Browns' erratic quarterback carousel to secure a crucial season-opening victory?
The Jacksonville Jaguars are coming into the 2026 season with high expectations, something their Week 1 opponent doesn't know much about.
Jacksonville is coming off a 13-win season, something the Cleveland Browns have never done since joining the NFL in 1950.
Jacksonville is also coming off a division title, which the Browns haven't won since 1989, and a trip to the playoffs. In contrast, Cleveland has only made three playoff appearances since re-establishing itself in 1999 after the "original Browns" became the Baltimore Ravens in 1996.
The Browns don't have to be better than the Jags historically to beat them Week 1 and don't even have to be better than the 2026 Jags, because that's the way football works sometimes. Truth be told, there's a lot to like about the 2026 Browns.
Defensively, the Browns finished fourth in the league in yards allowed per game last season, and feature one of the NFL's best players in defensive end Myles Garrett.
On the other side of the ball, Cleveland hired an offensive-minded head coach in Todd Monken, who most recently was the Ravens' OC and helped QB Lamar Jackson to MVP laurels in 2023.
Monken came to Baltimore with one of the league's most stable QB situations, and that's not going to be the case in Cleveland.
Last year, three QBs started games for the Browns: A 40-year-old Joe Flacco and two rookies, third-round pick Dillon Gabriel and fifth-rounder Sheduer Sanders.
None of them performed particularly well. Flacco played four games, threw six interceptions compared to two touchdowns and was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals. Gabriel played in 10 games and threw seven touchdowns to two interceptions, which doesn't look so bad. But Gabriel's completion percentage was just 59.5%, and his overall passer rating was 80.8, both well below the league average.
Sanders was the third starter, ending the season with 10 interceptions, seven touchdowns, a 56.6 completion percentage and a 68.1 passer rating.
If reporters are to be believed, none of these three will be Cleveland's starter in 2026.
That frontrunner for that spot appears to be DeShaun Watson, otherwise known as the guy Cleveland got in what is, for now, one of the worst deals in sports history.
Cleveland traded for Watson before the 2022 season, trading three first-round picks and six picks total to get him. This trade led to Watson signing a five-year, $230 million contract.
Watson has started a total of 19 games for the Browns, the last coming in 2024, so it's fair to say it hasn't worked out.
It's also fair to say that, if Watson even resembles the QB the Browns thought they were getting, they could take advantage of an AFC North filled with teams that are just ok (the Pittsburgh Steelers won the division at 10-7 in 2025). If Watson has it figured out by Week 1, the Jags might be in trouble.
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