The Cleveland Browns have ushered in some significant changes following a poor 2019 NFL season. Regardless, it seems team owner Jimmy Haslam is well-aware that any hope for a potential resurgence must start with quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield caught plenty of flak for his underwhelming performance during the Browns' 6-10 finish. Although Haslam has acknowledged some of his shortcomings, he feels most of the criticisms have been overblown, via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk:
“I think Baker was given a hard time I will say this year by a lot of people,” Haslam said. “We talked to eight [potential Browns] head coaches, some of them offensive, some of them defensive and their comments in terms of his ability to play quarterback were all outstanding. Baker is like all of us, he can get better and he has some things to work on. But the competence when these outsiders looking at our team and people looking at Baker was outstanding.”
Mayfield set the bar high by fitting the billing of a former No. 1 overall pick with his promising rookie campaign. The Browns' young signal-caller had openly embraced all the hype the came with he influx of star power to Cleveland, however, he was unable to take advantage of all the weapons at his disposal and endured quite the sophomore slump.
Of course, Mayfield did not do himself any favors by bringing such unnecessary attention to the Browns. Among the notable outlandish comments he made was when he called out New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones for where he was taken in the 2019 draft only to be subsequently outplayed by the rookie the very same year.
There is no denying Mayfield has a laundry list of issues both on and off the field to work on this offseason. It will be interesting to see where the point of emphasis will be for Haslam and the rest of the Browns' brass.
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