Baker Mayfield sends bold message to the Browns at NFL combine
Baker Mayfield wants to be LeBron James, or so it seems. At the NFL Scouting Combine on Friday, he had bold words for the Browns, who hold the first and fourth picks in the upcoming draft.
“If anybody’s going to turn the Browns’ franchise around, it’d be me,” the 2017 Heisman winner said.
The quarterback seems to believe that he will succeed where all others have failed in the wretched history of the NFL’s biggest joke of a franchise — a team that since returning to the league in 1999 has won just 88 games against 216 losses, has never won a playoff game, and hasn’t even been to the postseason since the 2002 season (when they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers).
Meanwhile, the Browns themselves are in a position where, coming off an 0-16 season and with a 4-44 record since 2015, they need to decide whether to give DeShone Kizer another year to prove himself, possibly drafting offensive line help or taking Penn State running back Saquon Barkley (or both), or to give up on Kizer after just one year and take Mayfield as the would-be franchise savior.
Mayfield is just 6-foot-1, undersized for a quarterback, but he addressed questions about his height during a media session at the combine on Friday.
“Height doesn’t matter, you see guys like Tyrod Taylor, (Drew) Brees, Russell Wilson, they’ve proven that it doesn’t matter,” he said, according to Cleveland.com. “If you want to say anything else, I’ve got three years of tape you can watch. Height doesn’t matter at that point. I think I had less batted balls at the line of scrimmage than the other guys here and I’m pretty sure I’m a shorter guy too, so it doesn’t matter.”
Between the two of them, Brees and Wilson have been to three Super Bowls; each has one ring. Neither is as tall as Mayfield (Brees is an even six feet, Wilson is 5’11”.)
Mayfield has had some off-the-field issues in college, including getting nailed on a public intoxication charge. As a result, he has been compared to Johnny Manziel, who famously washed out of the NFL after a troubled stint in Cleveland.
Asked to address those comparisons, Mayfield spoke in clear terms.
“People forget he was a talented football player, first things first, before he got caught up in whatever it was. Talented football player. But it when it comes to that comparison, we’re two completely different people. He’s said it, I’ve said it. When it comes down to it I’ll do anything to play this game and I’ll do everything to keep playing it,” Mayfield stated.
When it comes to the public intoxication charge and the accusations that he lacks class and sportsmanship after the plant-the-flag incident at Ohio State and the crotch-grabbing incident in Kansas, Mayfield addressed those concerns and others about his character as well.
“Honest, tell the true story. When I got tackled by the cops in Arkansas, I tell them a true story,” he said. “When I talk about planting the flag at Ohio State I tell them a true story, about the fact that was an emotional win, that was one we worked for over a year for after they embarrassed us in our home stadium.”
“And you want to talk about the Kansas thing, it’s about where you draw the line and being professional. If you want to be a franchise guy, there are certain things I can’t do, but I’m still going to be competitive and passionate. That’s gotten me to this point, so we talk about it, I’m up front about it.”
Mayfield indeed could be seen as merely hyper-competitive, like Cleveland’s favorite native son or like so many other athletes who aren’t out there to make friends but to win games.
The quarterback himself seems to be of that mind.
“The great ones are competitive. You look at Tom Brady, you look at (Aaron) Rodgers, Philip Rivers too, those guys have that edge,” he stated. “So, yeah there’s a line to be drawn and I’ve had my lessons to go through the hard way, obviously, you guys know that. Yeah, there’s a line to be drawn, I know that.”
“That’s not cockiness, it’s just confident,” Mayfield added. “Everybody in that locker room has earned that place in the locker room, those guys are trying to feed their families. But I’m not going to act like I’ve got it all figured out. … I’ve always been the first one to say ‘my mistake’ and we need to get better.”
Well, one thing’s for sure. In Cleveland, “we need to get better”… but it is statistically impossible for the Browns to get any worse. Whether they draft Mayfield or go with Kiser and a re-armed offensive line and running game, if the Browns go 1-15, they will have improved on their win total from last year.
Good luck, Baker. You’ll need it.
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