There is no question that there are fans and people who cover the Cleveland Browns that are a different breed. The media, in particular, have a different view of the city’s professional football team.
While the Indians can trade Francisco Lindor and people seem to think that’s okay, when it comes to the Browns they speculate about replacing the quarterback who led the team to its first playoff appearance since 2002.
It started with Houston QB Deshaun Watson’s pronouncement that he wants to be traded away from his current team. Immediately, there were folks in northeastern Ohio thinking the Browns should make a deal for the former Clemson quarterback, who by the way, Cleveland could have drafted.
Watson is a talent, that’s for sure. We believe he is one of the top four QBs in the NFL. We don’t include rookie in making this evaluation, but we feel the other three are Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson.
Yes, the Texans were a terrible team this season, but in Watson’s first full year as a starter, when Houston finished at 11-5, he was sacked the most times in the NFL. There are people who believe Watson sacks himself at times.
All of those other guys we listed have won one Super Bowl each, although Mahomes has a chance to win another next Sunday. Now, we understand the passers who have dominated the sport over the past two decades (Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger) are a little long in the tooth.
Besides that pair, no other active QB has won more than one Lombardi Trophy.
We aren’t saying you don’t need a great quarterback to win the championship, you certainly do, but we are saying having a great quarterback doesn’t guarantee a berth in the Super Bowl.
The current Browns QB, Baker Mayfield got his team to the playoffs in his third season, and won a playoff game, giving him the same number of playoffs wins as Watson.
To us, if you don’t think about replacing your quarterback if you are a playoff team unless he is the reason you cannot advance in the post-season. At this point, that does not describe Baker Mayfield.
His critics, which we feel have a dissenting opinion because they wanted the Browns to draft either Sam Darnold or Josh Allen in the 2018 draft, blame him for not driving the team down the field after the Karl Joseph interception in the fourth quarter of the 22-17 loss to Kansas City.
In reality, the reason the Browns lost that game was their defense couldn’t get off the field when they had the Chiefs in a 3rd and 14 situation. The defense was the weakest point of the team all year, because of injuries, and it couldn’t come through when it was needed.
And that defense will get better in the draft, where the Browns have nine picks. They would almost certainly have to give up some of those choices if they were to go after Watson, that doesn’t make any sense.
Those critics feel having Watson at the helm gives the Browns a better chance to win the AFC title and get to the Super Bowl, but how do we know Mayfield can’t do the same thing? How do we know Mayfield won’t be even better next season in his second year under the tutelage of Kevin Stefanski and Alex Van Pelt, and he can be on the same level as Watson.
He should get that opportunity.
If you could trade Mayfield for Watson, straight up, we would think about it. If you said trading for Watson would guarantee a Super Bowl for Cleveland, we would do it.
But there are no guarantees. Baker Mayfield is the Browns quarterback and he played well in the playoffs and won one game.
That should be the end of the argument. Period.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 