Browns schedule: Need to be early road warriors for season to matter in November, December

27 Jun 2000: The''Road Warriors'' at the WCW Super Stars of Wrestling press conference at Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia. Mandatory Credit: Matt Turner/ALLSPORT | Getty Images

The Cleveland Browns schedule release didn’t have a lot of shocking results, except for fans not getting a lot of early home games that they told us are their favorites to attend. The Browns will start on the road, with their first two matchups coming in Florida against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The home crowd gets to see the new, and hopefully improved roster, for the first time in Week 3 before the only primetime game on the schedule, at home for Thursday Night Football against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In all, Cleveland has just three home games in the first nine weeks of the season, which means they will need to be true road warriors (the famous WCW wrestling tag team with that name is the main picture for this article) for the rest of the schedule to actually matter. In general, betting lines always give three points to the home team, meaning the Browns will start six of their first nine games of the 2026 season in the hole.

If you don’t know who the Road Warriors (Legion of Doom) are, here is their Hall of Fame intro video:

There are what are perceived to be winnable games in that stretch, including two games against the Steelers, and road games with the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans. However, young teams often struggle on the road, which could lead to a poor start and, at least in terms of competing for a playoff spot, meaningless games starting before Thanksgiving.

If Cleveland can win four of their first nine games, the team could take advantage of a closing schedule with five home games, including four sandwiched around its Week 11 bye.