JACKSONVILLE – The dates are locked, and the stages are set.

The Jaguars as of last Thursday's schedule release now know their 2026 path. Knowing the first step of that path adds what Head Coach Liam Coen recently called "a little bit of excitement" to the offseason.

"It just gives you something a little bit competitive to build on and start to just get your mind going," Coen said.

The Jaguars will play the Cleveland Browns in Week 1 at EverBank Stadium, the second consecutive regular season they have opened at home. They beat the Carolina Panthers in the 2025 regular-season opener – Coen's first game as head coach – at the 'Bank.

The victory over the Panthers gave the Jaguars positive momentum in a time of new direction, and the Browns' game will give the Jaguars the same opportunity in Year 2 under Coen.

Coen during the team's recent rookie minicamp at the Miller Electric Center – a few days before the NFL released the 2026 schedule – discussed how knowing the Week 1 opponent affects offseason work.

"Your focus, as soon as the season hits, it's so internal," he said. "You're just everything self-scout, self-scout, worrying about ourselves and I want to keep that focus the same, but I think it just gives you a little bit of excitement."

For Coen, preparation begins now.

"Something to start diving into that we can start to almost incorporate in our offseason program is, 'Alright, let's throw some stuff that we know we're going to install – and things that we know we're going to run that may be something that pops up on tape that we would envision knowing that we're going to run in Week 1,'" Coen said.

"'Let's start to sprinkle that in throughout the offseason and see what that looks like. Maybe even throw it up against some of the looks that we could present.'"

The Jaguars and Browns have played once previously in a regular-season opener, a 27-7 Jaguars victory in Cleveland in 2000. They last played in Week 2 2024, with the Browns winning 18-13 in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars are 12-8 all-time against the Browns with a plus-118 point margin, their highest against any single opponent. Jacksonville's .600 winning percentage versus Cleveland is also its highest against any team.

The Browns, who finished 5-12 in 2025, have a new coaching staff led by first-year Head Coach Todd Monken – who coached the Jaguars' receivers from 2007-2010. Monken served the last three seasons as the Baltimore Ravens' offensive coordinator, with Trey Switzer – an assistant under Monken the past three seasons – now the Browns' offensive coordinator. Mike Rutenburg, a Jaguars defensive assistant from 2013-2019, is now the Browns' defensive coordinator.

Such newness means an element of projection in the preparation process, a process that will begin – at least somewhat – for the Jaguars during the upcoming on-field portion of the offseason program. Still, Coen said coaches might not make it particularly clear to players exactly when that preparation is happening.

"I'd say probably towards the end of minicamp we'll do blitz, BPU (blitz pickup) – just the offense against all of our Week 1 opponent pressures," Coen said, adding with a smile: "We won't tell them probably in that moment that these are opponent X's third-down pressures, but we will card them, we will script them, we will rep them out here without them knowing."