Baker Mayfield winning over team

The Browns have been in training camp only four days, and already quarterback Baker Mayfield has won one important battle.

That isn’t to say the first pick of the 2018 draft has unseated Tyrod Taylor as the starting quarterback, although Mayfield is running the second team and zipping the ball to receivers like he’s in a video game.

What Mayfield has done, however, is impress teammates and coaches with his work ethic, his desire to be the best teammate he can be, and the way he is establishing himself as a leader.

“There have been many guys that can throw a football through a wall, that can run a 4.5 40,” Browns third-team quarterback Drew Stanton said July 28. “It’s when you can combine all those things.

“I’ve always said the true measure of a quarterback is you ask his teammates what they think of him. Those 10 other guys in the huddle matter most because you need to be able to take those guys and make them play better than they think they’re capable of and (Mayfield) has that. You can see those little things — the authenticity behind the way he goes about his work and the way he acts. I think that’s what separates him from most.”

General Manager John Dorsey had his choice of quarterbacks when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced “The Cleveland Browns are on the clock!” to start the draft April 26.

Dorsey passed on Sam Darnold (third overall to the Jets), Josh Allen (seventh overall to the Bills) and Josh Rosen (10th to the Cardinals).

Dorsey was criticized for drafting Mayfield, a shade

under 6-foot-1, and though it is far too early to know how well any of the quarterbacks drafted in 2018 will do, the Browns are happy with the choice they made.

“He’s an outstanding listener,” Coach Hue Jackson said after practice July 29. “Baker Mayfield has been everything I thought a quarterback should be for our organization thus far. He’s doing the things that we want him to do the way we want him to do them and he’s exceeding those things because he’s putting in the time.

“When you’re the first pick of the draft, some guys walk in with their chests out. ‘It’s about me, me, me.’ He’s not about that. He’s about the team. He’s truly about the football team and about getting better. That’s why I’m glad he’s here.”

July 30 was Mayfield’s best day of practice so far — not just in training camp, but going back to spring practices in May and minicamp in June. His throws were on target, and instead of scrambling to find throwing lanes, he stood in

the pocket and found them.

“I just think he understands his teammates better and he knows where to place the ball to give them a chance to make a play,” Jackson said. “Those kind of things that he’s doing, along with standing in the pocket, I think he’s seeing the offense unfold a little bit better because he understands the system better. He’s making really good progress,”

Mayfield was a walk-on at Texas Tech in 2013 and ended up starting seven games. He transferred to Oklahoma because he believed he wasn’t given a fair opportunity by Texas Tech to win his starting job back after being injured.

Mayfield made the Sooners as a walk-on and had to sit out the 2014 season because he transferred. He started 39 of 40 games (he was benched temporarily for disciplinary reasons for one game) in his final three years with the Sooners. They were 34-6 under his leadership. He threw 119 touchdown passes, only 21 interceptions and completed 70.9 and 70.5 percent

of his passes the last two years at Oklahoma.

So yes, Mayfield wants to start for the Browns, but he understands his role and is content to learn from Taylor, whom Jackson deemed the starter March 14 when the Browns traded a thirdround pick to Buffalo for Taylor.

“I would never get my mind right to be a backup,” Mayfield said. “That’s the second that I would be complacent. That’s the second that I would stop working.

“You always have to keep working to be the best. That’s the same thing Tyrod has done his whole life. It doesn’t matter the position you’re in. If you’re not going to work hard then you’re not doing it right.

“They (the Browns) are doing everything they think is right, and I believe in that and I believe in them. So when it comes down to the stuff that they’re saying, that’s not going to change my work ethic. If it does, then something’s wrong.”

Mayfield continues to work, and he continues to get better.