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The NFL will not officially release the 2019 schedule until Wednesday night at 8, but reports are starting to come out about a few dates concerning the Cleveland Browns.
According to Manish Mehta of The New York Daily News, the Browns will make an appearance on Monday Night Football when they travel to MetLife Stadium to face the new York Jets in Week 2. (So much for wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. seeing the schedule a week earlier and believing the Browns would face the Jets in Week 1).
If true, it would mark the Browns first game on Monday Night Football since Nov. 30, 2015, when they lost to the Baltimore Ravens on the game’s final play, a blocked field goal returned 64 yards for a touchdown by Baltimore’s Will Hill.
The game would also be a rematch of last season’s Week 3 contest between the Browns and the Jets, a game that saw quarterback Baker Mayfield make his NFL debut in a Browns win.
A marquee matchup for the Browns will reportedly come in Week 8 when they go on the road to face the New England Patriots. That game will be a 4:25 p.m. contest, according to Jeff Howe of The Athletic:
The game you’ve all been waiting for:
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) April 17, 2019
Patriots-Browns is Week 8 (Oct. 27) at 4:25 p.m.
That will likely be just one of several late-afternoon games for the Browns in the upcoming season. Unless they are moved into a primetime slot, the road games against the Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers will all be later starts.
It also wouldn’t be surprising to see the home game against the Los Angeles Rams be at a later time, as well as one (or more) of the divisional games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens.
The league will announce the schedule live at 8 p.m. on the NFL Network. ESPN2 will have its own schedule release show, also at 8 p.m.