Will the Jaguars start their season with a win over the Browns?
Yahoo Sports Daily host Caroline Fenton and Yahoo Sports senior NFL writer Frank Schwab discuss the importance of the Jacksonville Jaguars starting their season 1-0. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
I, I'll give you this really simply.
If you lose to a team quarterbacked by Deshaun Watson in the year 2026, you cannot be taken seriously as even an NFL team at that point.
Like, you should be relegated at that.
Go play in the SEC.
You can take LSU's spot.
Anyway, so the Jaguars- Perfect coming off this magical season, we all expect them to come back a little bit after, a- after an off-season that was really, really quiet.
I think it's important for them to say, "No, we're here for real.
Like, we're, we're here to stay."
And nothing they did last season wasn't, it wasn't fluky, right?
Like, the Jaguars were a very, very good football team last year, and they need to show that again, though.
They need to show, "Hey, we're, we're here to stick."
Liam Cohen's running this thing now.
It's a different era for the Jaguars.
And again, if you lose to the Browns at home, the Browns do have talent too.
Like, they are gonna jump up and bite some teams this year.
They're gonna win some games 10 to nine, like, kinda like they did against the Packers last year, week three.
Those type of games.
They're not gonna do it because a quarterback plays well, I'll tell you that, but you could win some games.
So it's a, it's a little bit of a tricky spot for the Jaguars.
They're big favorites.
They're expected to win, but yet the Browns do have some talent.
And the Jaguars, I just think it would be tough for them to start off this year with a loss to the Browns at home.
A lot of survivor people would be, gone already at week one, and then we'd just be saying, "Oh, it's the same old Jaguars.
They, they really haven't changed."
So I think that's the pressure, just to show that last year wasn't a one-off.
Last year is what it is gonna be going forward for Jacksonville Jaguars.
Any games the Browns win this year will be in spite of the quarterback.
I know that to be true.
Absolutely.
The Jags have been like that, that hipster pick, that, that one team that nobody's talking about, that if, you know, everybody's talking about the same, the Rams, the Eagles, you know, the Broncos, the Patriots, the Bills.
Everyone's talking about those teams.
But the Jags have been, like, kind of that deep cut, oh, I'm gonna pick the Jags in, you know, a, to get to the Super Bowl, to go on a run in the post-season, to k- kind of have that, like, that different pick.
Trevor Lawrence, same way, that kinda hipster MVP pick, and I think that's all for good reason.
Yet another, year under the Liam Cohen offense.
What we saw from Trevor Lawrence and from this team as a whole in the back half of the season, and Trevor Lawrence was putting up MVP caliber numbers in the final, what, seven to eight games of the season.
In theory, you would continue that momentum.
Travis Hunter is back and healthy and has a more clear and defined role in what he is going to do this season.
So I, I would expect Brian Thomas to have a bounce back year after a great 1,000 plus yard, receiving year in his rookie season.
So there's all of these reasons to really fall in love with the Jags.
But you have to beat the Browns.
