The Cleveland Browns and their fans got excellent news on Wednesday morning with the NFL confirming its 2026 international game slate. The Browns were on the short list of possible opponents for both the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, and the New Orleans Saints in Paris, but Cleveland will remain stateside for Year 1 of the Todd Monken era.
Avoiding international travel is an obvious win for the Browns this year. The team has enough unknown variables in its own locker room right now. Adding a trip overseas to face an unfamiliar opponent in the first two months of the season would have been brutal.
As betting market analyst Bill Speros unveiled after the NFL’s international games were finalized, the leverage Monken just gained on his team’s 2026 schedule is impossible to ignore.
Per Speros, the Browns will only have to travel 9,073 total air miles this year — the second fewest in the NFL. Only the Carolina Panthers will spend less time in the air (8,740 miles).
For context, the San Francisco 49ers, who managed to draw games in Australia (Week 1) and Mexico City (Week 11), will travel 38,105 total air miles in 2026.
BREAKING: The 32 NFL teams travel 628,873 miles this season. That equals 25.2 trips around the circumference of the Earth, or 2.63 times the distance to the Moon.
— Bill Speros (@billsperos) May 13, 2026
Six teams will travel more than the distance around the earth the equator - 24,901 miles.
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The Browns’ path to more wins in 2026 is impossible to ignore
We’ll get the true projections on Thursday night when the NFL’s full 272-game schedule is officially released, but the Browns’ path to the playoffs should easily rank among the top-five easiest in either conference.
Travel will play a major role in that. Cleveland will play eight home games and nine true road games. Aside from their three division opponents, the Browns will play four of those road games on the East Coast against the Jaguars, Giants, Jets, and Buccaneers.
Cleveland’s non-division home opponents include the Texans, Colts, Falcons, Panthers, and Raiders. The Texans and Panthers both qualified for the playoffs in 2025, but for the most part, the Browns should be able to hold their own against that group. Quarterbacks like Daniel Jones, C.J. Stroud, Michael Penix Jr., Bryce Young, and rookie Fernando Mendoza won’t exactly strike fear into Myles Garrett and company. Just the opposite, actually.
Monken deserves some early-season grace to get his young offense up and running. It could take all of training camp (and part of September) before he gets a true feel for who his starting quarterback should be.
All things considered? There should be no excuses if the Browns struggle to another double-digit-loss season in 2026. Cleveland has had a strong offseason to date, and the path to carry that momentum onto the field this fall is getting clearer by the day.
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