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The NFL’s Cleveland Browns have the dubious distinction of being one of just four NFL franchises which have never even participated in one Super Bowl game. The Browns join the Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans as part of that elite group.
Unlike Jacksonville and Houston (both NFL expansion teams), Cleveland and Detroit have been long-time members of the NFL. The two franchises had been a part of the league when the inaugural Super Bowl game was played in January, 1967.
Now 55 years later, the AFC’s Cleveland Browns and NFC’s Detroit Lions have fans trained to expect the worst possible decisions from their team’s ownership and management.
Last year, Detroit’s long-time quarterback Matthew Stafford was granted a pardon from the Motor City and traded to the Los Angeles Rams. Just a year later, Stafford is now wearing a Super Bowl ring. Meanwhile, his former teammates in Detroit suffered through a 3-13-1 season.
On Wednesday of this week, the Cleveland Browns traded their four year starting quarterback Baker Mayfield, the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft, to the Carolina Panthers.
The Browns will receive a fifth round draft pick from Carolina after next season. As a key part of this transaction, Cleveland also agreed to pay $10.5 million of Baker Mayfield’s salary for the upcoming 2022 season. Carolina will be on the hook to pay the remaining $4.85 million due under Mayfield’s NFL contract.
Baker Mayfield was the #1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft. Coming out of the University of Oklahoma, Mayfield had just won the 2017 Heisman Trophy as the Sooners’ quarterback.
The Cleveland Browns (coming off a winless 0-16 year in 2017) had high hopes for the top draft selection in the 2018 NFL draft.
Prior to Baker Mayfield’s selection by Cleveland in 2018, the Browns had gone ten consecutive seasons without posting a winning record. In the three seasons prior to Mayfield coming on board, the Browns went 3-13, 1-15, and 0-16.
The odds were stacked against Baker Mayfield before he arrived in town.
In his first season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback, Baker Mayfield led the Browns to a more respectable 7-8-1 record in 2018. The rookie passed for over 3,700 yards with 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Mayfield finished second in the Rookie of the Year balloting to New York Giants running back sensation Saquan Barkley.
Despite a coaching change during midseason of Baker Mayfield’s rookie year in 2018, things were beginning to look-up in Cleveland.
The 2019 season brought more change to the Browns. Another rookie head coach (Freddie Kitchens) was hired to lead the team. During Baker Mayfield’s second season in Cleveland, he started to struggle and tossed a career-high 21 interceptions to go with just 22 touchdown passes. The Browns regressed to 6-10 in 2019, and the coach (of course) was fired.
Beginning in 2020, Baker Mayfield’s next new head coach was Kevin Stefanski. The coach had served as the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings for the past two seasons.
In his third year as a starting quarterback in Cleveland, Baker Mayfield finally looked like he had grown into the job. Mayfield tossed 26 touchdowns against just eight interceptions as the Browns went a surprising 11-5 to make the playoffs for the first time since 2002.
Cleveland then defeated their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in the first round to win their first playoff game since 1994. The Browns would lose to a talented Kansas City Chiefs team in the second round of the 2020 playoffs.
Just three seasons into his Cleveland Browns career, quarterback Baker Mayfield seemed to have found his stride. Mayfield’s rookie contract was extended by one year through the 2022 season. The Browns’ new head coach, Kevin Stefanski, was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year in 2020 for the team’s remarkable resurgence.
Entering the 2021 season, the Cleveland Browns were in the unfamiliar role as favorites to win the always tough AFC Central division. Competing against the likes of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, it was the other AFC team in the state of Ohio, the Cincinnati Bengals, grabbing the spotlight in 2021.
Baker Mayfield injured his left (non-throwing) shoulder in the second game of the 2021 season. Though he played in 14 games last season, Mayfield’s shoulder issues lingered throughout the year. He was sacked 43 times, lost six fumbles, and tossed 13 interceptions in 2021. Since the Cleveland Browns defense was ranked #5 in the NFL, the post-season blame was pointed squarely at quarterback Baker Mayfield for the team’s disappointing 8-9 season.
As the season ended, Baker Mayfield had surgery on his torn labrum (shoulder).
The quarterback signed a 4-year $33 million rookie contract with the Cleveland Browns in 2018 which included $22 million as a signing bonus. The entire contract was fully guaranteed (sweet!). After getting Cleveland into the AFC playoffs during Baker Mayfield’s third year with the team, the Browns management exercised their right to extend Mayfield’s rookie contract by another year to keep their quarterback with the team for a fifth year (which would be this upcoming 2022 season).
Remember, this occurred after Baker Mayfield was the toast of the town in leading the Browns back to the playoffs for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The 2021 season saw Ohio’s other professional football team, the Cincinnati Bengals, roaring past the Browns all the way to the Super Bowl.
The Cleveland Browns ownership and management did what they do best. Making bad decisions is something the Browns do really well.
The Cleveland Browns have appeared in the NFL playoffs just three times in the past 31seasons since 1990. The statistical chances of any one NFL franchise being that bad for such a long period is very low.
At least fans of the Cleveland Browns have been able to buy playoff gear in 1994, 2002, and 2020. It could be worse.
So, the Browns finished 2021 with a disappointing 8-9 record after making the playoffs in 2020. This problem must obviously be the fault of the team’s offensive leader, Baker Mayfield.
Is Baker Mayfield really that bad when compared to other quarterbacks who have been selected as the NFL’s #1 overall draft pick?
Below is a chart I put together showing every quarterback selected as the NFL’s first overall pick beginning in the year 2000 through Baker Mayfield’s selection in 2018. Let’s compare Baker Mayfield’s first four years in the league with the other twelve quarterbacks:
Based on the number of wins during their first four seasons in the league, I am declaring Andrew Luck (Colts) as the most successful of these thirteen #1 overall draft selections at quarterback. My system ranked Baker Mayfield as #5 – just behind Eli Manning and ahead of Cam Newton’s first four years in the NFL.
The Cleveland Browns (being the Browns) decided to blame quarterback Baker Mayfield and search the NFL to find another established quarterback with more talent and better leadership skills than Mayfield.
So, the Browns (being the Browns) leveraged their future by making a huge trade this spring.
This newest Cleveland Browns quarterback just cost the team a first round draft pick in 2022, 2023, and 2024 plus a third round pick and two fourth round picks. Oh, yes, the Browns agreed to pay $230 million (all guaranteed) to this new quarterback over the next five years.
Certainly, he will be an improvement at quarterback!
The Cleveland Browns (being the Browns) did all of the above in order to acquire the services of off-field troubled quarterback Deshaun Watson from the hapless Houston Texans.
Yes, this is the same Deshaun Watson we have covered here for months. Watson’s attorneys are still trying to settle more than twenty civil lawsuits filed against the quarterback stemming from allegations that he requested sexual favors from message therapists in the Houston area.
These allegations and lawsuits even convinced the Texans (in an effort to salvage the team’s already poor PR image) to keep Watson off the field for the entire 2021 NFL season. For Watson’s part, he was still paid the $35 million due under his contract even though he never took a snap under center last year.
Houston finished with a 4-13 record in 2021. Lest we forget, the Houston Texans have never played in a Super Bowl, either. Some things never seem to change.
After the 2021 season ended, a Texas grand jury decided against charging Deshaun Watson with criminal misconduct. His attorneys are now busy writing checks in an effort to settle with his many accusers in civil court.
The NFL is looking to send a message to Deshaun Watson, too.
The league continues (why is this taking days and days to decide?) to deliberate whether it wants to keep Deshaun Watson off the field in Cleveland for, perhaps, the entire 2022 season. The NFL wants to let the other players in the football league know that there are serious ramifications for tarnishing the squeaky clean image of America’s most successful professional sports league.
As the NFL mulls its punishment for Deshaun Watson, the Browns made another deal on Wednesday. They just paid $10.5 million to the Carolina Panthers to take Baker Mayfield and the final year of his contract off their hands. In return, the Browns will receive a nifty fifth round pick in the next NFL draft.
So, the NFL’s 2018 top pick in the draft was just sent to another losing franchise in exchange for a lowly fifth round draft pick next year?
Yes, this is another case of the Browns “being the Browns”.
Just for fun, let’s compare the first four years in the NFL for the Browns new star quarterback, Deshaun Watson, with Baker Mayfield’s first four years in the league:
Deshaun Watson’s first four NFL seasons include more touchdown passes and a lower number of interceptions. Yes, I’d say he edges out Baker Mayfield. The real question is whether Deshaun Watson is worth all of the money and the future draft picks Cleveland handed over to the Houston Texans to get him.
Long-time fans of the Cleveland Browns know how this is likely to turn out.
Though the Browns ownership and management team may believe they are smarter than everyone else, the results on the field for several decades prove otherwise. Since the Browns have yet to suit-up in one Super Bowl over the past 55 seasons, I feel confident (statistically speaking) that we may already have our answer.
Good luck in Carolina, Baker Mayfield! At least they won’t be able to blame you in Cleveland anymore.