Todd Monken and the Cleveland Browns fell short to Liam Coen and the Jacksonville Jaguars, 34-10, on Sunday in their Week 1 opener of the 2026 NFL regular season. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence had a strong performance, completing 18-of-23 pass attempts for 245 yards to go along with four touchdown passes.
Wide receiver Parker Washington finished with game highs of five receptions and 83 receiving yards to go along with a touchdown. 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter finished with one catch for eight yards. For Cleveland, head coach Monken decided to start veteran Deshaun Watson, with the 6-foot-3 quarterback finishing with 205 passing yards to go along with a touchdown and an interception.
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Watson was sacked five times in the game, with the overall team performance lackluster, to say the least. During the broadcast, studio analyst for NBC Sports’ Football Night in America and former head coach of the division-rival Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin had choice words for the Browns organization, with the criticism succinctly put as the “Browns is the Browns.”
On Tuesday, The 33rd Team’s Ari Meirov reported on Monken’s response to Tomlin’s words during a press conference. In a post on the social media website X, Meirov posted a clip of Monken, who said that everyone is entitled to their opinion, that he disagrees with the notion of the Browns being the Browns as a pejorative and is confident that his regime can change the narrative.
“Again, everybody’s afforded their opinions,” Monken said. “That’s what you do when you go from coaching to television, and we have to own that. We didn’t play that well, I don’t see it that way, “Browns being Browns,” I don’t see it that way. Every week is different, every team is different, we just didn’t play well. That’s one week, that’s not Browns being Browns, that’s Browns played poorly on one week. Again, everybody’s afforded their opinion, and the only way to change people’s opinions is to play better. That’s a fact. If we don’t want to be considered an also-ran, then we got to play better. We gotta coach better, we got to play better.”
Cleveland will head to Raymond James Stadium to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Week 2 of the 2026 NFL regular season on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m. ET.
