The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Steelers visit to open 2018 season
Myles Garrett and the Browns will open the season at home against the Steelers. In another schedule highlight, they host the Jets in a Thursday night prime time game in Week 3.
If Tyrod Taylor wants to dig in as the Browns new starting quarterback, he can begin preparing for the season opener by studying the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The NFL released its 2018 schedule on April 19, one week before the draft begins. For the second straight year, the Browns will host the Steelers in the first game of the season. Kickoff on Sept. 9 is 1 p.m.
The opener last year, as it turned out, was one of their best performances of the season. They put up a fight but lost, 21-18, and then proceeded to finish 0-16.
Instead of closing the season against the Steelers as they did each of the last three years, the Browns will end their regular season in Baltimore on Dec. 30.
The Browns have one prime time game, which is one more than they played last season. They host the New York Jets in a Thursday night game on Sept. 20 in the third week of the season. Other games could be switched to prime time during the season.
“I’m always excited about the release of our schedule,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said in a statement. “The release of your schedule is one of the final pieces to your planning for the season. I like our schedule. It’s balanced. It’s tough. But that’s exactly what we expected. We play some really good quarterbacks to start the season and two playoff
teams out the gate.”
The Browns play in New Orleans on Sept. 16 in the second game of the season and then have the short turnaround to get ready for the Jets. They follow the Jets with their only West Coast game of the season when they play the Raiders in Oakland on Sept. 30.
The bye this season is Nov. 18. The Browns will have played 10 games by then. In a quirk of the schedule, the Browns will have completed their two-game series with the Steelers (at Pittsburgh Oct. 28) before they see the Bengals for the first time. They play the Bengals in Cincinnati on Nov. 25 and host their downstate rival on Dec. 23.
Six games will be played against 2018 playoff teams, and that includes two against the Steelers. Three others are against teams from the rugged NFC South — the game with the Saints plus home games against the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 11 and Carolina Panthers on Dec. 9. They also host the other 2018 playoff opponent when the Kansas City Chiefs visit on Nov. 4.
“It’s great that we know the order of our opponents,” Jackson said. “We now have a clearer picture of the opponent we will be focusing on first and that’s something you can point to throughout the entire offseason.”
Fourteen games are scheduled for Sundays. Along with the Thursday night game the Browns also play in Denver on Saturday, Dec. 15, on NFL Network at a time to be determined.