The Cleveland Browns made an interesting move in March 2022 when they traded for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, leaving their starter Baker Mayfield looking for a new home.
Mayfield helped bring the Browns to playoffs in 2020 and won in the wild-card round against their biggest rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2021, Mayfield suffered a shoulder injury early in the season, which kept worsening throughout the year. Still, the former Oklahoma quarterback would not get surgery until very late in the season, and it ended up costing him his job with the Browns.
The former first-overall pick would never play a snap again for Cleveland after the 2021 season and was traded to the Carolina Panthers in the summer of 2022, about four months after Watson came to town.
Mayfield was a guest on the Barstool podcast Pardon My Take. He started talking about his ending with the Cleveland Browns and blaming himself for what happened.
Baker Mayfield Blames His Stubbornness On The Reason His Time With The Cleveland Browns Ended
Mayfield stated that everything happens for a reason, and he wouldn’t change anything looking back on it, but he probably should’ve gotten the surgery and sat out for the rest of the year, and he learned a lot of lessons about how stubborn he is.
If Baker had a chance to go back and get the surgery, he would not have done it. He was not under a new contract then and was playing for a new deal, so he had to be out there every week. If Mayfield had missed most of the season, he would’ve been going into the next year under his fifth-year option and then a free agent after that.
The Browns were probably going to move off a Mayfield at some point, even if he did get the surgery and missed most of the 2021 season because he hasn’t been the best quarterback in the league. When he got to Carolina in 2022, he stunk up the place and got released.
Mayfield found a new home with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season and found the perfect spot. He can fly under the radar there and play football. He doesn’t have to save the city and football team like he had to do in Cleveland.
