This week, we asked Jacksonville Jaguars fans if the team’s 2026 season opener against the Cleveland Browns is a trap game.
The good guys are favored by 8.5 points, per FanDuel Sportsbook. Jacksonville is projected to win 8.5 games this year compared to just 5.5 games for Cleveland.
The Browns have seemingly thrown up the white flag already by trading away an all-time great at EDGE and starting an all-time creep at QB. The franchise is as sorry as it’s ever been. But that’s almost bad news for the Jaguars — their season could end as soon as it begins if they fall flat against a far inferior opponent. Losing to the Myles Garrett-less, Deshaun Watson-led Browns is as close to rock bottom as you can get.
Almost half of this week’s survey respondents see Week 1 as a trap game for Jacksonville.
As for the confidence survey, 86% of fans are confident the team is headed in the right direction. So there’s a good bit of trust in this team to get the job done on Sunday.
Last year, 86% of fans were confident in the team at the start of the season, and 99% of fans were confident in the team at the start of the playoffs.
“You have to go into it knowing that it may not always be perfect,” head coach Liam Coen said Friday. “But it does have to be violent, and it does have to be physical. We’re all going to make mistakes, try to make them at a million miles an hour, and go play the next play. That’s the mindset and mentality: trying not to focus on some of the anxieties or some of the things that could come up where every player, every coach is aware of those things in game one. You try to go and let these guys go play and move on.”