Cleveland Browns 2024 schedule prediction: Projecting the order, prime-time games
The most NFL of days on the NFL calendar will be soon here. The league, on Wednesday, May 15, will announce the 2024 NFL schedule.
The Cleveland Browns have known 14 their opponents for this season for years thanks to the pre-set divisional rotations and no changes to the AFC North in two decades. They've even known the three teams who were based upon last year's divisional finishes since January.
The order, as well as what games may be chosen for prime-time TV spots, are all that remain to be announced. Still, that's not going to stop us from having a little fun projecting what that order and what those prime-time games are going to be this season.
After going through multiple drafts, we've come up with an order for the Browns' 17 regular-season games. Will it be anywhere close to right? Not a chance, but that's not stopping us.
Can this projection at least get half right? Who knows?
Will it pull a 2017 Browns and go 0-for? That's very much on the table.
2024 Cleveland Browns schedule prediction:
Week 1: Home vs. Dallas Cowboys (4:25 p.m. start)
It feels like the Browns are going to be rewarded for their playoff season by getting a marquee opener at home now that the Brazil opener is off the table. It wouldn't get much bigger than a late-afternoon kickoff against the Cowboys, maybe even with Tom Brady in the Fox broadcast booth as well, now would it?
Week 2: Away at Baltimore Ravens (Sunday Night Football)
It's been a while since the Browns were on Sunday Night Football, all the way back to Nov. 28, 2021, when they played at, that's right, Baltimore. An early season AFC North showdown just feels like it deserves a little Carrie Underwood.
Week 3: Home vs. Miami Dolphins
The league gave the Browns a December home game against a Florida team last year. The bet here is that they don't get a similar break this time around.
Week 4: Away at Denver Broncos
It snowed the day before the Browns played at the Broncos last year. This is really just trying to speak a late-September trip to Denver — when it's typically really beautiful — into existence.
Week 5: Home vs. New York Giants
Don't worry, the home-away, home-away theme that you seem to be picking up will eventually go away. But it feels like the Browns are going to get a home game — sure, why not the Giants? — before the next game on the schedule.
Week 6: Away vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, in London (9:30 a.m./NFL Network)
The 2017 season was the only time the Browns played a regular-season international game. They're due for a trip across the pond. Just remember, Kevin Stefanski's never lost a game in England when the Browns have been on the field.
Week 7: Bye week
The Browns get a nice break to get their body clocks back on schedule. Just in time for what comes next.
Week 8: Home vs. Cincinnati Bengals (Thursday Night Football)
The Bengals should have Joe Burrow back healthy at quarterback, just like Deshaun Watson should be the same for the Browns. That should make it attractive to the prime-time audience.
Week 9: Away at Las Vegas Raiders
Whenever this game does fall on the real schedule, expect a lot of fans to start putting in for a Friday and/or Monday off in order to make the trip to Vegas, the first time the Browns have played a regular-season game in Sin City.
Week 10: Away at Washington Commanders
They're going to get back-to-back road games at some point. Following a trip to Vegas with a trip to suburban Maryland at least means the second leg isn't quite as taxing.
Week 11: Home vs. Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens have to come to Cleveland at some point. The week before Thanksgiving felt like a good landing spot.
Week 12: Away at Pittsburgh Steelers (Black Friday game)
Considering the Browns' last 20 regular-season trips to Pittsburgh, playing this game on Black Friday feels right.
Week 13: Away at New Orleans Saints
Average temperature in New Orleans on Dec. 8 is 64 degrees. Average temperature in Cleveland on Dec. 8 is 40 degrees. Temperature the last time the Saints played in Cleveland on Christmas Eve two years ago was 6 degrees, with a wind chill of minus-16.
Week 14: Home vs. Kansas City Chiefs
Could this be a game with major AFC playoff seeding? More importantly, could this be the thing that brings Taylor Swift to Cleveland? Is all of this going to be way off and this game gets played, like, eight weeks earlier? Stay tuned.
Week 15: Home vs. Los Angeles Chargers
Remember when Jim Harbaugh used to struggle in late-season games in Ohio? Anyways, much like his brother's team, the Chargers have to come to Cleveland at some point. Might as well be when the average temperature is 38 degrees.
Week 16: Away at Philadelphia Eagles (Saturday)
The Browns were in contention to play the Eagles in a standalone game four days after Labor Day in Sao Paulo, Brazil. How about playing the Eagles in a standalone game four days before Christmas in South Philadelphia as a consolation prize?
Week 17: Away at Cincinnati Bengals
Thinking the NFL may want to try to really set up a dramatic two-week finish in the AFC North. Imagine pairing Browns-Bengals and Ravens-Steelers together in the next-to-last week followed by …
Week 18: Home vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
… Browns-Steelers and Ravens-Bengals in the final week of the regular season? Think about a home game against the Steelers with an actual full house and both teams playing for something, be it a playoff berth or, potentially, a division title. You can almost hear the fights in the stands already, can't you?
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns 2024 schedule projection: Guess the order, what's on prime time
