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Jimmy Haslam believes 2026 Browns will exceed expectations: Our fans 'deserve better' | Latest NFL News, Analysis & Updates | NFL.com

Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam believes his team will exceed expectations in 2026, aiming for a fun-to-watch team that plays hard and makes few mistakes.

First seen Aug 01, 2026 · 1:33 AM UTC · last updated Aug 01 4:30 PM

Scoring Zone's Take

This cluster is pure ownership rhetoric with essentially no direct fantasy signal — Jimmy Haslam voicing optimism about the Browns exceeding expectations in 2026 doesn't tell you who starts at quarterback, how touches get distributed, or which skill players see volume. Treat this as noise for draft prep purposes; it's not actionable on its own.

That said, the names attached matter for context heading into draft season. Cleveland's quarterback room remains a genuine question mark with Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and Deshaun Watson all in the mix, and until there's clarity on WHO wins that job and how Todd Monken's offense deploys him, every pass-catcher and even the backfield touch shares in Cleveland carry wide range of outcomes. Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Jared Verse, and Carson Schwesinger are defensive/depth pieces with no standard fantasy relevance beyond IDP formats, and Garrett in particular remains a name-value asset there regardless of front-office optimism.

Actionable takeaway: don't draft any Browns skill player, or Sanders/Gabriel/Watson, off the strength of ownership's "we'll exceed expectations" talk — that's motivational messaging, not a depth-chart or scheme signal. Keep Cleveland's offensive weapons (whoever they end up being) as speculative, late-round or watchlist additions until beat reporting clarifies the quarterback competition and target distribution. Confidence here is low for fantasy purposes; the source itself is low-impact opinion, and you should wait for concrete camp/preseason usage reports before moving any Browns-adjacent players up your board.

HASLAM BELIEVES ‘26 BROWNS WILL EXCEED EXPECTATIONSJIMMY HASLAM BELIEVES 2026 BROWNS WILL EXCEED EXPECTATIONS: OUR FANS 'DESERVE BETTER'

Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken addresses the media.

It's been a long two years since the Browns made a playoff appearance.

Cleveland has gone 8-26 the past two seasons following an 11-win run to the Wild Card Round during the 2023 campaign, and after such struggles made sweeping changes with an eye toward meaningful change.

Team owner Jimmy Haslam believes the decisions, namely bringing in head coach Todd Monken and making the difficult decision to stockpile assets by trading away All-Pro pass rusher Myles Garrett, have set Cleveland up for immediate and future success.

"Continue to get better," Haslam said Friday when asked about expectations for the 2026 Browns. "To not play ugly. I’m making a joke, but I meant that. We want to be fun to watch. We want to play hard, not make mistakes, look like we got out act together. That’s something we didn’t handle [the] last two years, and expectations are we will this year.”

Haslam added: “Our on-field performance, and this is more Dee (Haslam) and I and not (managing partners) Whitney (Haslam Johnson) and JW (Johnson), is something that keeps us awake at night and is unacceptable. I hate it the most for our fans because they deserve better than that. So, we’re working hard every day to not have that same kind of performance we had in the past. We don’t have our heads in the sand. We know we’ve not performed.”

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For those long-suffering Browns fans seeking more specifics than their team playing hard and being fun, Haslam delivered a prediction.

Haslam has seen the Browns tabbed by some with a win expectation of 5.5 heading into the season, and he's confident regarding which side of the line he falls.

“I would say this, and we never do this, but I think the odds are for us to win five and half games. I’ll take the over," he said.

There are still many things to figure out before the Browns start stacking any wins, of course.

First and foremost is the quarterback position, a near-annual Cleveland conundrum that this training camp features a competition between Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel, seeming third in the running.

All three have started games for the Browns. Watson, the most experienced, sports a 9-10 record with Cleveland and is fully healthy from the Achilles injury that kept him out all of last season as he heads into the final year of his contract. Sanders went 3-4 in 2025 as a rookie, while Gabriel finished 1-5.

Rather than answer any hypotheticals about the distant future, Haslam pinpointed figuring out the Week 1 starter as the main priority. How that first, crucial step plays out will inevitably clear up more farsighted concerns.

"We’ll know by the first game who the starter’s gonna be," Haslam said. "Listen, somebody might have a great year and they’re our quarterback forever. Or neither of them might. I think it’s way, way, way early to be talking about who’s going to be our quarterback next year. We have to figure out who’s going to start the first game.”

Cleveland's defense has similarly undertaken a massive training camp. It's been a decade since the Browns entered camp without rostering Garrett, the single-season sack king, and first-time defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg has the unenviable task of reshaping the unit in the franchise legend's absence.

He'll be helped by Pro Bowl pass rusher Jared Verse, who came over in the Garrett trade along with three draft picks. The Browns also have a cornerstone piece like linebacker Carson Schwesinger and recently extended cornerback Denzel Ward.

Haslam addressed trading Garrett on Friday, in some ways closing the book on the blockbuster as he looks ahead to what the daring move could mean to Cleveland's future.

“Myles is an unbelievable player," Haslam said. "I mean I was thinking the other night, you take Jim Brown, Joe Thomas, Myles Garrett, you know, they are first-ballot Hall of Famers, world-class people. So, it was not an easy decision, but we’ve made it, we’re moving on. We’re excited about Jared and excited about those three draft picks.”

The pieces are there to build. So, too, is the motivation after too many years left disappointed. Execution and results must now follow.

Coverage from Nfl Dot Com News · by Bobby Kownack · Aug 01, 2026 · read original