Keenum: ‘I’m excited to know my role’

Keenum

Baker Mayfield last year became the first Browns quarterback to start all 16 games in a season since Tim Couch somehow survived the entire 2001 season despite being sacked 51 times.

Not since Brian Sipe did it from 1978-81 has a Browns quarterback made it through two consecutive seasons as the starter.

In other words, if history is any kind of precursor of what to expect, Case Keenum will get the chance sometime in 2020 to show why the Browns last week gave him a three-year contract to play behind Mayfield.

“If Baker’s shoelace comes untied and he needs to maybe go get a drink of Gatorade at the water station, I’m going to be ready to go,” Keenum said March 25 on a conference call. “If I need to take a few snaps, I’m going to handle myself well.

“I feel like I can play at a high level. I feel like I’ve played at a high level over the last few years.

“It may have not shown in some of the wins and losses, but this league is tough. There is a constant curve and kind of a gradual ebbs and flows of it. But I feel like my trend has gone up in the way I’ve handled games.”

Keenum is 32 and has seen a lot of locker rooms. He made the Texans’ final roster as an undrafted rookie in 2012 and started eight games for them in 2013. Since then he played for the Rams, Vikings, Broncos and Redskins.

Keenum is 27-35 in career

starts. He played on a one-year contract with the Redskins last year, and when free agency rolled around he went job hunting to be a backup. There will be no quarterback derby in Browns training camp this summer, and that is fine with Keenum.

“I’ve come into situations where there is a competition, and I know this isn’t one,” Keenum said. “We knew finding a situation where there was an attractive backup job was going to be kind of our priority, and we did that with the Browns.

“It worked out perfectly that the Browns were looking at me, and we had the Browns highlighted, as

well. I’m excited to know my role and to know there is no uncertainty in the quarterback room.”

Keenum said Mayfield reached out to him via text the day Keenum signed with the Browns, “which was really cool,” Keenum added. Keenum, having been on four teams in four years, sympathizes with Mayfield for having been in three offenses in two seasons.

So Keenum will fill the role of mentor occupied by Drew Stanton the last two years and be content.

There was that one season in Minnesota, though, in 2017, when Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was the Vikings

quarterback coach and Keenum the quarterback. He had the best season of his career – 11-3 as a starter with 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Stefanski will not have to wonder what to expect if Keenum does have to play in a game.

“Case has been a backup in this league, he’s been a starter in this league” Stefanski said. “He understands as a backup how it’s his job to support the starter and be ready to play in a moment’s notice. Bottom line is we’re adding a really smart, tough football player in that room.”

Garrett Gilbert is third at quarterback on the Browns’ depth chart.