Cleveland Browns: 3 reasons Baker Mayfield is still The Franchise QB
By Kyle Edmond
3 reasons Baker Mayfield is still franchise QB for the Cleveland Browns.
It has been a disappointing season for the Cleveland Browns and Baker Mayfield. With Super Bowl hopes running wild in Cleveland prior to the season, Mayfield and company will instead be on the outside looking in for the playoffs this season. Unfortunately, this isn’t an unfamiliar situation for Cleveland fans and it has some reverting back to old ways.
After taking Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns have had high expectations for their latest attempt at finding a franchise quarterback, and there were certainly signs of promise. That is until this season.
Now, it hasn’t been an easy ride in 2021 for Baker. Throwing 10 straight incompletions against Pittsburgh while watching his interceptions rise and touchdowns fall from a year ago won’t help his case, but the injuries that Mayfield sustained throughout the season surely played a role. It’s not to say that this season should be ignored, but the larger representation of Mayfield makes the problem seem like a fluke.
In his rookie season, Mayfield looked the part of everything Cleveland was searching for in a quarterback. There were the prototypical rookie mistakes, but he battled through a coaching change to lead Cleveland to a 7-8-1 record. Prior to Mayfield’s arrival, Cleveland had gone 4-44 over the previous three seasons.
The sophomore season of Mayfield brought regression under Freddie Kitchens, but the 2020 campaign with Kevin Stefanski gave Cleveland fans more than the last 20 years combined. Mayfield and Stefanski looked the part, made the playoffs and won a playoff game. Now, just a year later, some fans are calling for a change under center.
Are the calls for changed understandable? To a certain extent. The woes are there, but there’s a lot more to this than just one bad season for Baker Mayfield. While there have certainly been struggles, Mayfield is still clearly the best player for Cleveland to line up at quarterback in week one of the 2022 season and beyond and here’s three reasons why.