Did Baker Mayfield Get A Raw Deal From The Cleveland Browns?

Baker Mayfield has revitalized his career with the Buccaneers, which has made some question the Browns' decision to cut ties with him.

Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield laughs as he watches his teammates warm up before a game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, in Cleveland. Baker Pregame 2 / Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK

Baker Mayfield's tenure with the Cleveland Browns was interesting, to say the least.

The Browns took the University of Oklahoma standout with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, which caught some people by surprise at the time. Mayfield certainly wasn't the consensus top pick going into the draft, and he shot up draft boards last minute.

Mayfield ended up spending four years in Cleveland, and inconsistency was his hallmark. He had an impressive, exciting rookie campaign followed by a major regression in his sophomore season. The fiery quarterback then proceeded to take the Browns to the playoffs in 2020 before a miserable 2021 ended his tenure with the club.

After finishing with 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in his fourth NFL season, Cleveland gave up on Mayfield, trading him to the Carolina Panthers for a conditional fifth-round pick (ouch) that ensuing offseason. Of course, that came on the heels of the Browns swinging a blockbuster trade to acquire Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans.

At first, the Browns appeared to be vindicated in their decision to move away from Mayfield. He made just six starts with the Panthers before being released—not traded; released—midway through the 2022 campaign. He would sign with the Los Angeles Rams for the remainder of the year, starting four games. Overall, he totaled 10 touchdowns and eight picks that season.

Mayfield's NFL career appeared to be on life support at that point. At least in terms of him being a viable starter. But then, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gave him a chance, and everything changed.

The 28-year-old enjoyed the best year of his career in 2023, throwing for 4,044 yards, 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while completing 64.3 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 94.6. Most importantly, he led the Buccaneers to an NFC South division title and a Wild Card Round playoff win.

Meanwhile, Cleveland was busy shuffling through five different starting quarterbacks before getting blasted by the Texans in its own Wild Card Round matchup.

The Browns' decision to trade for Watson appeared to be a good one in the moment (at least from an on-field perspective). The fully-guaranteed contract and the massive draft capital Cleveland surrendered to acquire the three-time Pro Bowler certainly raised some eyebrows, but if Watson was going to be the same quarterback who led the league with 4,823 passing yards to go along with 33 touchdowns and just seven picks in 2020 (he sat out all of 2021), then you really couldn't complain.

Obviously, that has not been the case thus far. Watson has made a grand total of 12 starts over his first two seasons with the Browns, accumulating 14 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Not exactly $230 million production.

Meanwhile, Mayfield has revitalized his career, and now, some are coming to the conclusion that he got a raw deal in Cleveland.

NFL reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala said as much on 92.3 The Fan this week.

“Baker wasn’t a bust,” Kinkhabwala said (h/t Steelers Depot). “Baker, in some ways, got screwed."

Kinkhabwala specified that, contrary to popular belief, head coach Kevin Stefanski was not the reason why the Browns parted ways with Mayfield.

"I do know for a fact, in conversations that I directly had with Kevin Stefanski, that Kevin Stefanski had no issued moving forward with Baker Mayfield, had no doubts," Kinkhabwala said. "… The franchise as a whole, the organization as a whole, decided that they wanted to go in a different direction."

The fact of the matter is that the Browns probably should have been more patient.

It wasn't like Mayfield was Tim Couch. He didn't just show flashes of greatness, either. He had two really good seasons in Cleveland, and his last year with the club was marred by injuries and locker-room drama that certainly was not his fault.

Mayfield particularly had problems with Odell Beckham Jr., but knowing Beckham's history, are we really going to pin that on Mayfield?

Look: I get why the Browns did what they did. They saw an opportunity to land one of the best quarterbacks in the game in Watson, and they threw caution to the wind and pounced. It's entirely understandable. Watson was just 26 years old at the time, and there was very little doubt that he was a better player than Mayfield.

The issue was that, again, Watson missed an entire season and was also dealing with some pretty serious off-the-field issues (Cleveland surely knew Watson was going to be suspended for a good chunk of 2022). So, there were obvious red flags that the Browns chose to bypass.

But the question is whether or not Mayfield would have even been able to succeed in Cleveland at that juncture. Clearly, the organization had soured on him to the point of no return, and rolling him out for another year (assuming the team didn't trade for Watson) may have been an exercise in futility.

Or, perhaps the Browns should have blown things up around Mayfield (they had already started doing that when they released Beckham in November 2021) and given him another chance with a new roster. It's not like Mayfield was ancient. He was 27 when they traded him.

Mayfield has a cannon for an arm, solid mobility and has demonstrated very strong leadership capabilities, especially in Tampa Bay.

Maybe a divorce was best for both sides. It stands to reason that things never would have worked out for Mayfield in Cleveland. It's entirely possible he would not have been able to become the best version of himself with the Browns.

But it certainly does feel like Mayfield may have gotten the short end of the stick.

Here's to Baker continuing to rip it in Tampa, and to Watson having a bounceback year in 2024.

That way, everybody is happy.