DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns announce 2026 schedule

I Would have liked the Falcons for the Home opener.

Kind of an intersting order. Home opener 3 games in after 2 of our better non div opponents. No back to back divisional games. I know they base strength of schedule on last years records but I don’t have faith that the jags, saints, Texans and colts are going to be as bad as some expect. Bengals are also due for an on year. I just don’t think Mike McCarthy is a good coach so I don’t know what to expect of the Steelers. Or the Ravens. But both teams won’t be terrible. I just don’t believe in Jackson Dart but coaching is way better so giants are also a big ?. I feel like this could easily turn into a pretty tough schedule but whatever. I appreciate it when the bye is very near the middle.

Interesting to also get the super rare “easy” schedule the season before we’re likely gunning for a qb in the draft. Probably an 8-9 close and out of the running for a top QB unless we move Miles. It’s a season of question marks for sure. Way more questions than answers.

Schedules are determined years in advance except for two games which are played against teams with similar records. One from the AFC, one from the NFC.

I agree that you can't get much out of strength of schedule. You can never tell from year to year how well a team is going to play.

This. And you never know who will start fast or slow. Who will get injuries. Too many variables to read much into the tealeaves ... just prepare for each game one at a time. If we can get to 8-9 or 9-8 this year I will be surprised and happy.

I think 2 road games to start the season and then coming home to 2 teams that made the playoffs last year will be a fairly tough start to the season. The new Oline needs to gel quickly and hopefully Garrett and the defense gets off to a fast start.

That's correct, except it is now 3 games, to get them to 17 total AND the opponents are determined in advance, not the schedules.

Now it is:
6 division games, 3 home and 3 away

8 non-division games from a rotating schedule of one division within each conference, this year it is AFC South and NFC South, (2) Home and (2) away from each division.

3 games, 2 from AFC and 1 from NFC, in our case, from a division different from the (2) above. So, for the AFC North in 2026, the AFC games will be the ranked opponents like your team in AFC West and AFC East. The last opponent will be ranked the same from any of the NFC East/West/North. Ranking in the division determines the opponent pool to choose from for the schedulers. These are the only (3) opponents undetermined at the end of the previous season. There is a rotating year over year from this tier that determines (2) home OR (2) away, one year you will have 8 home games, then next you will have 9 home games.

Sounds like a plan

I’m sure we have a solid plan for this season! There are too many unknowns right now and it’s going to take a while to get some solid answers as to how things will play out. New OL, new WR’s new HC and staff not to mention our yearly quandary at QB. If I had to guess how many games we will win I would say 6-8 but it’s almost impossible to predict. Here’s hoping for the best and our young players to develop.

Who says the Jags are going to be bad? Are we expecting bad-Trevor-Lawrence season? Texans could go back to being really good if Stroud can figure out his TO issues. Similarly, Mike McCarthy will follow his usual cadence of having 2 really good seasons and then settle into 9-8/8-9 seasons after that. The one I'm curious about is the Ravens... that HC hire could go either way and they have a decently talented roster and a good QB.
I agree, Giants could surprise.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson

The Giants will surprise me because I have no idea what to expect. Nabers and Scattebo are both coming off injury. Wan'dale Robinson is on the Titans now. Not sure how good Nagy is away from Andy Reid at OC. Bloomgren (Our OL coach last year) is there now. They added Ricard and Likely from Baltimore, but we'll see how they are used. Will be interesting to see how it all comes together, or not.

I kind of think the Titans could potentially be better than projected. Added some interesting pieces on O (Robinson, Tate) and have some talented guys that could be poised for year two leaps (Ward, Dike, Helm.) Daboll did pretty well with young Josh Allen.

Thanks.

One thing that really jumps out to me is the furthest the Browns travel west this year is New Orleans. I don’t think they have a plane ride over 2 hours. Less travel, less jet lag.. that should be a bit of a boost for such a young team. It is more like a college travel schedule.

The two games in Florida and the one in New Orleans are the furthest travel. Back to back in Jacksonville and Tampa might just keep them down there for the week.

As long as the defense doesn't fall apart/regress with the coaching change, we will continue to match up well against them.

I'm not wild about the tougher start to the year. Bucs will be good as they are healthy. I'm still not sold on the Jags, in general, but it would be beneficial to have easier opponents to try to build momentum.

Assuming the defense doesn’t regress under new coaching and assuming the offense will almost certainly be better, this could be an interesting year. New scheme and a lot of rooks might offset the positives but 2 of our division mates are also going to have new schemes. I loathe the idea of DW being “the guy” but I think he’s going to be very motivated. If he can be just an average QB, I’m gonna say it.. the path is wide open for the playoffs.

While it's fun to do the what if's I don't think our Oline will be finished after 1 off-season. I think there will still be holes to address that will hold us back.

As bad as last year??

The agree it was a complete undertaking to change out the entire line, but I have to believe it has improved with all the moves that have been made.

I don’t think anyone is talking Super Bowl.

My only real gauge is, did we do enough to to have a fair chance to evaluate the QB position? Last year was a wash. Way too many obstacles to even say whether there was progress or not.

I think we have made significant progress - I think we should be better than last year in both pass protection and opening lanes for the run game. I also think we have improved the depth/reliability of the depth behind what will be our starters. I don't have high hopes for the QB evaluation, but you never know. Obv injuries can upset any of that.

I agree with the last few posts. I think we will have a better OL and the offense in general will be much improved. I really believe that Monken will bring a fresh new approach to our O which IMO, needed a change. It will take time to gel with all our new players, but the O has to be better than what we had last season. We should be able to move the ball and our games will be more competitive. How many more wins this will translate to is anyone's guess. I predicted 6-8 wins but honestly, it's a matter of conjecture.

The only prediction I would be comfortable making on wins is 6-13. I know, I know, that really isn't a prediction, but there are so many question marks that it is impossible to know what we have. I can't believe we are worse today than we were at any point of 2025, so a one game increase I feel is pretty safe. It's all the other factors that go into anything beyond that.