Mayfield general
Heading into Week 6, the Dolphins are in a nose dive, the Patriots are trending upward, as usual, and the Falcons continue to struggle.
But that’s not all, as we take a look at The Post High Five for this week:
TURNAROUND TO WATCH
The Browns, at 2-2-1 entering Sunday, have the same winning percentage as the 3-3 Super Bowlchampion Eagles, a better mark than the 1-4 Falcons, the Super Bowl runners-up two years ago, and the same record as perennial winners Pittsburgh and Green Bay.
A win at home over the 3-2 Chargers would push the Browns over .500 for the first time since Dec. 7, 2014.
Just 12 teams have a better record than the Browns, who entered this season having won one game in the previous two seasons (1-31).
The catalyst to the Browns’ early promise this season has been brash rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield. While lobbying to be the No. 1-overall pick he eventually became, Mayfield told reporters at the NFL Combine in February, “If there’s anyone who would turn that [Cleveland] franchise around, it’d be me.”
He is one resounding relief appearance, in a comeback win over the Jets, and two starts into his NFL career, so it may be a bit early to start carving a statue of him outside the Browns stadium.
But, after the long list of high-draft-pick quarterback hopefuls — Johnny Manziel, Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden, Colt McCoy, Tim Couch — there’s a different feel in Cleveland about Mayfield.
“From the people they are putting together in this group, but then also the belief I have always had in myself,” Mayfield told reporters during the week. “I said it back at the Combine when everybody said I was a short quarterback that could not do much, I said if anybody is going to do it, I believed in myself to do that. That is something that I carry with me, and I hope our guys believed in themselves, as well.”