The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Mayfield gets call to finish preseason
Most starters will rest in finale against Lions
The fourth preseason game is the one coaches dread most. If the NFL would agree to a running clock from the opening kickoff they would all be happier.
It doesn’t work that way, though, so at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 the Browns will play the Lions in Detroit with this mantra: Get in, get out and don’t get hurt.
“I am not playing the starters in this game,” Browns head coach Hue Jackson said. “Specific guys will play and play quite a bit, and then we’ll let some other guys finish the game.”
Somebody else, obviously, has to play if the starters do not. Baker Mayfield will start at quarterback and play the first half, Jackson said.
Lions coach Matt Patricia is unlikely to play his starters long, if at all. That means Mayfield will be playing behind (mostly) a backup offensive line facing a group of hungry Lions eager to flash on film so they might be able to get a job with another team if they get axed by their current team when rosters are whacked to 53 on Sept. 1.
Offensive coordinator Todd Haley might be wise to call running plays most of the night just to keep Mayfield upright and safe.
“Being able to just keep growing in the system,” Jackson answered when asked about Mayfield’s goals in his first start with the Browns. “How we call the game, situational football. Execute at a high level because I think that
he can and I know he can. He is definitely going to start the game and play as long as I want to see him out there. It looks like a half, for sure.
“Continue to move our offense forward. There will be some other guys that he’s playing with that we will be depending on. I just want to see him keep taking steps towards ultimately what his goal is
— someday to be playing quarterback here.”
Jackson said the starters will not play, but that isn’t totally accurate. He said left guard Austin Corbett “will get some snaps” as will right guard Kevin Zeitler. Zeitler missed the first three games with a calf injury, but is healthy now and needs playing time against the Lions to be ready for the season
opener against the Steelers, Jackson said.
“Zeitler definitely will not play a whole half,” Jackson said. “I just want Kevin to prepare for a full game, to go out there and feel it, be in the game for a moment and then get him out.
“Kevin is really important to what we do. I don’t want to expose him too much, but I do need to
make sure that he’s ready to play.”
Jackson said “a handful” of roster spots are still being contested. All of them are for backup jobs, primarily at wide receiver, offensive line and the secondary.
“I think that there are some guys in a competition when you think of (Damion) Ratley, (Derrick) Willies, (Da’Mari) Scott,
(Jeff) Janis and (C.J.) Board,” Jackson said, referring to the wide receivers. “All of those guys, it is going to be an opportunity for them to showcase themselves. We have some battles on our team that we have to decide, but that is definitely one of them.”
Guard Spencer Drango and recently signed Earl Walford could be fighting for one roster spot.