JACKSONVILLE — Jaguars head coach Liam Coen told reporters the AFC South champions are raising their internal standard heading into the 2026 regular-season opener against the Cleveland Browns at EverBank Field on Sunday at 1 p.m.
“It just becomes more real,” Coen said during a roughly 20-minute news conference. Jacksonville enters the season at 13-4 after winning the AFC South in 2025, while Cleveland finished 5-12. The Jaguars are 16-15 all-time in regular-season openers and have won two of their last three, including a 26-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers to open the 2025 campaign — Coen’s first game as head coach.
“We had a team meeting this morning and seemed like everybody was kind of chomping at the bit, ready to go,” Coen said. “The mood in the room was good, and they seemed pretty excited to get going.”
The Jaguars closed the preseason against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on August 28, with the NFL scheduling a bye week between the preseason finale and the regular-season opener. Coen opted against playing most starters during the preseason, instead relying on joint practices against the New Orleans Saints, Panthers and Buccaneers for preparation. He said the extra week gave the team time to adjust to late-summer conditions and practice schedules.
“You see improvement,” Coen said. “Last year we saw some improvements made, whether it be individually, per the units, and obviously as a team as a whole. It just raises the standard in the way that the guys operate on a day-to-day basis.”
Coen spent much of his availability emphasizing that a 13-win season does not entitle the roster to coast. “When we don’t meet the standard, whether it’s in a meeting or a walkthrough or a practice, it gets addressed,” he said. “We can’t just let it go and say, ‘Well, we won 13 games last year.’”
He added that the accountability is increasingly player-driven. “The standard of performance in the locker room has elevated to where maybe I don’t always have to say, ‘Hey guys, that’s not the standard,’” Coen said. “The way that we come to work every day needs to be reflective of our energy and the way that we prepare.”
Looking ahead to the Browns, Coen framed the opener as a test of execution rather than opponent scouting. “It’s definitely a game that we have to be ready to adjust to some certain things and have some patience with but also have an attacking mindset,” he said. “A lot of this game, especially in Week 1, is so much about our execution, about our guys, our team.”
Kickoff at EverBank Field is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.