Matured Mayfield
Coming off a 2020 season in which he helped Cleveland end its playoff drought, Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has made offseason improvements as he prepares to take the team further.
CLEVELAND — Baker Mayfield has grown up. There was no other option.
“I had to hit rock bottom for a little bit,” he said.
He’s rising, and judging by last season, so are the Browns.
As he picked at lunch during a break last month while shooting commercials at FirstEnergy Stadium, Mayfield exuded some of that chip-on-his-shoulder confidence that transported him from college walk-on to NFL starting quarterback.
That will always be on display, defining him, driving him. The brashness, though, has been muted.
While discussing the stuttering start to his pro career, his future in Cleveland and expectations for this season during a sit-down interview with The Associated Press, there was something noticeably different about Mayfield. He’s changed.
It’s not a 180-degree turn by any means, but Mayfield is more measured with his actions and words. More of a leader, a role model, a franchise quarterback.
“Experience,” he said, “definitely teaches you.”
Mayfield crashed after a record-setting rookie year, only to bounce back in 2020 under first-year Coach Kevin Stefanski. On the eve of his fourth training camp, he was relaxed and reflective as he prepared for a season Browns fans have awaited for a generation.
Mayfield helped Cleveland end the playoff drought. Next challenge: the Super Bowl, which the Browns never have reached.
He’s physically fit, having dropped “bad weight,” and in a good place mentally. He’s found inner peace, and the 25-year-old feels a strong connection with this football-crazed city and its fans. Cleveland is where he wants to play his entire career.
“We’ve talked about it, Emily and I,” Mayfield said, referring to his wife. “It wouldn’t be the same if we lived in a city where they didn’t live, breathe and die football. That’s the atmosphere we want — and it’s here.”
There’s an unmistakable bond between this Ohio city and this Oklahoma quarterback. Both underdogs, they’ve been through good years and bad ones. Knocked down and counted out, they’ve fought back.
“When I say that my work ethic and mentality fits right in here,” he said, “I genuinely mean that.”
Even before being drafted first in 2018, Mayfield sensed Cleveland was where he belonged.
“If anybody’s going to turn that franchise around it would be me,” he boasted at the combine that year.
The Browns went 1-31 in two seasons before he arrived and spent two decades discarding quarterbacks and coaches at dizzying speed. In Mayfield, they have seemingly found the leader missing since Bernie Kosar led Cleveland to three AFC title games from 1986-89.
Mayfield is under contract for two more years and insists his focus is solely on winning, another sign of development.
For a while, though, it looked as if he might be another bust.
After breaking Peyton Manning’s rookie record for TD passes and going 7-81, Mayfield took things for granted. He didn’t spend nearly enough time working on his craft, got heavy and threw nearly as many interceptions (21) as TDs (22) in 2019.
Picked to contend for the AFC North title, the Browns disintegrated. They went 6-10 and fired coach Freddie Kitchens, and Mayfield’s critics circled with sharpened knives.
“For the first time in my life, I was kind of listening to the outside noise and I let that affect me too much,” he said. “I was so worried about what type of picture I needed to portray as a franchise QB because everybody was telling me I had to be a certain way, instead of just doing how I’ve always done it — which is how I’m here.”
While it would have been easy to blame Cleveland’s ceaseless dysfunction, Mayfield held himself accountable.
“The whole 2019 season was just kind of a miserable year,” he said. “I expect a lot of things out of myself and I just didn’t play well. That was a humbling experience.”
Expectations for the 2021 Browns are enormous. Mayfield says he isn’t fazed by them.
“It would bring the great tradition back,” he said. “It’s a football town because of what it’s been in the past, and what it deserves to be. It would mean a ton to me, but I wouldn’t be satisfied at just stopping at one.”