Cleveland Browns vs Jacksonville Jaguars, Week 1 2026

Browns vs Jaguars opens the season in a stadium that is half torn apart, with Deshaun Watson playing his first competitive football in almost two years. Jacksonville went 13-4 last year. Cleveland went 5-12.

Kickoff is 1:00 PM ET on Sunday, September 13. Once it starts, everything on this page moves by itself: live score, game leaders, box scores, play-by-play with the game flow chart, and team statistics that refresh drive by drive.

Browns vs Jaguars is also the last Jacksonville home opener until 2028.

Browns vs Jaguars Start Time, TV Channel and Live Stream

CBS has Browns vs Jaguars in the early Sunday window, which is a regional broadcast rather than a national one. Whether it reaches your television depends on the market map, and Sunday Ticket carries it everywhere else. Cleveland and Jacksonville are both on Eastern time, so 1:00 PM is local in each city.

Deshaun Watson Gets the Job

Todd Monken named Watson the starter on Monday, August 24, ending a competition with Shedeur Sanders that began in April and ran to the final week of camp. Monken was clear it is not a week to week arrangement.

It is a strange decision on the numbers. Watson went 5 of 12 for 35 yards with an interception against Buffalo in the second preseason game, was booed, and hit back at the crowd afterwards. Sanders, 24, went 9 of 11 for 74 yards with a touchdown and a pick in the same game. Monken waved the comments away, saying Watson had emptied his heart a little.

The bigger number is the calendar. Browns vs Jaguars will be Watson's first game since October 10, 2024. He tore an Achilles that day, re-tore it in early January 2025 and missed all of last season.

A 42,000 Seat EverBank Stadium

Jacksonville is playing this season inside a construction site. Roughly 27,000 seats are offline, 22,005 of them in the upper bowl, which drops capacity to about 42,500 and makes every ticket harder to get.

It changes how you move too. The plaza level no longer runs continuously from gate to gate, so ramps at Gates 2 and 3 are the quickest way up to the main concourse, and assigned gates can shift between games as work progresses. Parking inventory matches last season. The Jaguars construction FAQ keeps the current details. The full opening slate is on the 2026 NFL schedule.

Browns vs Jaguars by the Numbers

13-4 against 5-12. Jacksonville won the AFC South and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2022. Cleveland finished fourth in the AFC North.

Liam Coen's first year was historic. He became the first rookie head coach to win 12 or more games with a team that had won four or fewer the season before. Trevor Lawrence finished third in the NFL with 38 total touchdowns.

January ended three points short. Buffalo knocked Jacksonville out of the wild card round by a field goal.

Rosters are not final. Cuts to 53 land at 6:00 PM ET on Sunday, August 30. Follow the Browns and Jaguars pages, and watch the first NFL standings of the year form.

Browns vs Jaguars FAQ

Browns vs Jaguars pairs a team that won 13 games with one handing the ball to a quarterback who has not played since 2024, in a stadium with 27,000 seats missing. Check back on game day for inactives and the live score.

Last updated: August 27, 2026