Welcome to the first Sunday of the 2026 NFL season.
It is a good slate of games for Week 1, highlighted by the Cleveland Browns on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars. (At least that is the highlight in these parts!)
Other games of interest include Tampa Bay at Cincinnati in the latest matchup between Baker Mayfield and Joe Burrow. Mayfield has led his team to six wins in eight career matchups with the Bengals, so that sounds promising.
Elsewhere in the AFC North Division, Baltimore is at Indianapolis,
while Pittsburgh hosts Atlanta in a game where the Falcons will start Cooper Rush at quarterback as Tua Tagovailoa is out with an oblique injury. It won’t be easy, but maybe Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski can do his old team a solid and figure out a way to beat the Steelers.
The late-afternoon windown brings a pair of interesting NFC matchups as Green Bay opens at Minnesota, while Washington takes on the Eagles in Philadelphia.
Finally, the day wraps up with Dallas at the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football, a tiresome rivalry that the networks still love to highlight.
Dawgs By Nature will be with you through it all, with news about the Browns and everything else going on today. Keep it here; download the app to enhance your game experience (available for IOS and Android), and go Browns!
Now let’s move along with today’s edition of the Sunday Dawg Chow.
Dawgs By Nature
Browns DC Mike Rutenberg: ‘We’re arriving with bad intentions’ (Thomas Moore): Cleveland’s new defensive coordinator has a solid plan for what he hopes to accomplish. The question is, can the players deliver?
Cleveland elevates two players from practice squad to face Jaguars (Chris Pokorny): Cleveland elevated linebacker Nathaniel Wilson and cornerback D’Angelo Ross as they prepare for the season opener against Jacksonville.
Browns GM Andrew Berry’s plan for Ohio State versus Texas Saturday night before Week 1 (Jared Mueller): There might be a player or two worth keeping an eye on in this game.
Browns keeping all 4 QB’s could pay off sooner rather than later as NFL injuries start (Curtiss Brown and Jared Mueller): It’s the Browns and quarterbacks. Nothing ever goes as planned.
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Cleveland Browns
Rookies on offense will be in spotlight for opener (Browns Zone): When the Browns have the ball, the focus will be on the rookies.
What do the Browns think of their QBs? (Terry Pluto): General manager Andrew Berry is taking a positive approach to the current quarterback room.
Tyson Campbell heading back to Jacksonville, where he ‘grew up a lot’ (Beacon Journal): Cleveland cornerback Tyson Campbell is proof that a change of scenary can help a player.
Deshaun Watson knows this could be his last chance to save his career. Can he start with an upset over the Jaguars? (cleveland.com): Just take it one game at a time.
NFL
How Raiders’ QB Kirk Cousins is approaching Year 15 (ESPN): Wild to think that Kirk Cousins once backed up former Browns legend Robert Griffin III in Washington.
He’s barely 22, but the Bucs have been waiting decades for Rueben Bain Jr. (Tampa Bay Times): The Buccaneers have apparently been looking for an edge rusher almost as long as the Browns have been looking for a quarterback.
The question looming over Roger Goodell’s next steps: Is bigger always better? (The Athletic): Sounds like the commissioner has a lot on his plate.
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