Browns announce their 2026 preseason opponents

The 2026 preseason opponents are now officially set.

The Browns will open the preseason on the road before returning home to host two preseason games at Huntington Bank Field.

"We have an opportunity to, first of all, evaluate the players and what we have moving forward, who's going to make up our team for the 2026 Browns," head coach Todd Monken said. "And then having two home games, ultimately, you want to put a good product out there. You want it to look like clean football and evaluate players."

Cleveland will travel to Chicago in Week 1 of the preseason to face the Bears. The date and time of the first preseason game will be announced at a later date. They then will head home to host the Bills for joint practices ahead of Week 2 of the preseason on Saturday, Aug. 22, with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. The Browns will close out the preseason with a second consecutive home game at Huntington Bank Field when they host the Patriots in Week 3 on Thursday, Aug. 27 at 8 p.m.

"We'll get a chance to practice against the Bills here," Monken said. "The opportunity to go up there (to Chicago) – I'm from Chicago, so that's pretty cool. Even though it's a preseason game, it's still pretty cool. But obviously it's about the players and evaluating the players. You get to go on the road and get to simulate an actual game. So, it'll be fun."

The first two preseason matchups will air on WEWS News 5, while the final preseason game will air on Amazon Prime Video.

Click here to read article