The Browns Aren’t Making Their Mind Up Right Now On Baker Mayfield And You Don’t Have To Either
We’re impatient. It’s the odd contradiction of years of losing. I have been doing this for a while, and some of you have been doing it for at least twice as long, and it’s tiring, I know. We have seen so many guys be not-the-guy that you get good at recognising who doesn’t have it, and you start looking for Not It. Let’s not waste emotional involvement on a guy, a coach, a roster.
We’re always ready for the next guy.
But I come bearing glorious news. You have been saved…from having to decide right now. You can enjoy Baker when he’s on fire, and you can criticise him when he’s a tire fire. And you don’t have to say now whether you think he’s the guy or not. Cause the Browns aren’t.
I like Baker, and I want him to succeed. Players clearly gravitate to him, and as long as he can lose the rabbit ears, he has the makings of an effective leader. This isn’t really Baker-specific though, I’ve wanted every quarterback in a Browns jersey to succeed. Nobody really wants these guys to fail. They just wanna be right.
I know opinion on Baker is as mixed as his performances, some of you are all the way in, and some of you are all the way out. This is completely okay. I ain’t gonna tell you how to be a Browns fan. Number 1 because I don’t have even a fraction of the right to do that, and number 2 because telling people how to fan is corny. We’re adults. Nobody here is blameless.
Baker is having an “okay” season. He’s pretty much done enough to warrant either response. He is hugging that Mendoza line pretty tight right now. After Sunday he’s on track for about 3,200 yards, 34 TDs, and 16 INTs. I can hear you yelling in the back, so okay, it’s 27 TDs without Sunday. I’m rounding up because I’m in charge here and you got your way once. So, as I said, okay. Not really definitive either way.
The Browns are watching every game just like we are, probably several times, and they are obviously watching the quarterback very closely. So far they have seen two absolute stinkers against the two best teams they’ve played (who just so happen to be in the division), a few okay performances, and one big fucking exclamation point. They are taking this all in, and forming an opinion on their quarterback, but they don’t have to have a fully formed opinion for a while.
A moment to discuss that exclamation point. I have been pretty patient with Baker, and will continue to be, but it was encouraging to see that game. I haven’t seen that guy since he was a rookie, when he was dropping dimes like an old lady paying for groceries. Yes it was the Bengals and yes they suck defensively and yes he had time to pick his spots, but that ball came out quick, and found the open man literally (as in the actual literal sense) every time for three straight quarters. You saw what he was capable on the TD pass to David Njoku. When he’s on, he knows how to use the catch radius of his targets to put the ball where only they can get it.
He is gonna need to be that guy with the loss of Odell Beckham to an ACL tear. We probably don’t realise yet what effect that’s gonna have on the offense. As anybody with any sense will tell you, Odell does not make Baker worse. He might make Baker a bit more reckless, but that is not a guy that makes quarterbacks worse. Odell kept Eli Manning’s career going for like three years longer than it had any right to last.
So, ideally you want your coaching staff to be able to tell you your quarterback’s five best plays in the playbook and his five favourite plays in the playbook (yes five is an arbitrary number that I’m using to make a point). I do not think this staff is there yet, and I do not think they would claim to be close to there yet. Like I said, these guys don’t really know each other. Every game right now is a learning experience for Baker *and* for Kevin Stefanski and Alex Van Pelt.
Stefanski is still learning how to call a game for Mayfield. The Browns aren’t going to make a decision on a quarterback that the coach has had his hands on for about five minutes.Right now, the summation of Stefanski’s opinion on Mayfield is probably “he does some things well, he does some things poorly”. I’m sure Kevin would be more loquacious than that, but this is a very measured group. They aren’t gonna get too high, they aren’t gonna get too low. They are gonna take their time.
Baker is in his third year as a pro, which means that the decision on his fifth year option is looming. But there’s another nine games to get through before they need to think about that. It’s complicated a little by Baker being a #1 pick, so his option year is going to be the average of the top ten quarterback salaries (yeah thanks Patrick), so probably around $25m. Not far from the total value of his current contract.
They don’t have to make that decision until May, so they’re gonna take all the time they need to see what the deal is with Baker. For the record, if they had to make the call today they probably exercise the option out of an abundance of caution. They have the cap space to plan for it, and it’s only guaranteed for injury through the player’s fourth year, becoming fully guaranteed on day one of their fifth year. And the best part? Ain’t my money and ain’t your money.
The Browns are going to make a decision on their quarterback. It might not be this season, it might not even be next season, but at some point they’re gonna either pay him or not. That decision is not imminent. Yours doesn’t have to be either.
