The Cleveland Browns move into an important season for Baker Mayfield, and these four players could be potential backup options in 2020.
With the the 2020 offseason being another season of change for the Cleveland Browns, there’s plenty to dissect in regards to the status of the roster.
That includes the quarterback position. No, Baker Mayfield isn’t being replace, but he is going into the most important football season of his life.
If he plays like he did during the second half of 2018, the Browns should be playoff contenders. If he toils toward the bottom of completion percentage as he did last season, well, sadly, Cleveland’s going to be looking for a quarterback when they go on the clock in 2021.
We know Mayfield the talent, and have seen his potential turn into real results. The hope is he took on too much, too soon, advocating for his buddy Freddie Kitchens to get the job a season ago. With the perception being that Mayfield had more of a friend than a coach wearing the headset, the belief is that Kevin Stefanski will get the QB’s career back trending in the right direction.
With Mayfield going into camp as QB1, there are questions about how to push the former No. 1 overall pick. He’s got his fourth head coach, and he’s going to need a top-notch quarterback room.
That’s not to bring down last year’s quarterback room. Drew Stanton has been praised for his mentorship of Mayfield. Meanwhile, Garrett Gilbert tore up the short-lived AAF and has NFL experience.
Stanton, who had connections to Freddie Kitchens from their days in Arizona, couldn’t play because of injury, but he almost certainly seems like he’ll be gone. Meanwhile, Gilbert…well, more on him later.
As the Browns contemplate 2020 free agency, these five players could be potential fits to be Baker’s backup next season.
1. Case Keenum
Kevin Stefanski wasn’t calling plays when Case Keenum had the Minnesota Vikings on the verge of the Super Bowl a few years back, but he spent a lot of time with now free agent as the team’s quarterback coach.
Keenum went on to Denver and then Washington where he was never able to rekindle the magic of that season. That said, he’s been a professional, even with the Redskins working in quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
Here’s what Keenum brings to the Browns that the roster doesn’t have: A proven commodity to come in and win games should Mayfield go down. It didn’t happen for more than a few snaps in 2019, but the worry is always there.
Keenum may not be a franchise quarterback, but he gives your team a chance to win, and when desperate times call for desperate measures, a chance is all you need. He could even fill in should Mayfield go down for a few weeks.
In his one season with the Vikings, Keenum completed 67.2 percent of his passes for 3,547 yards and 22 touchdowns against seven interceptions.
The following season in Denver, Keenum completed passes at a 62. 3 clip, throwing for 3,890 yards, 18 touchdowns and 15 picks in 16 starts.
For Washington this past season, he was 1-7 as a starter. He completed 64.8 percent of his passes, but threw for 11 touchdowns against five picks.
With Keenum’s veteran-ness, in addition to his his history with Stefanski, he seems like the ideal choice to back up Mayfield in 2020.
2. Marcus Mariota
With the Titans set to part ways with Marcus Mariota after achieving more success without him, the former Heisman winner would bring intrigue to the quarterback room.
Mariota’s career hasn’t been great. Like Mayfield, he was thrown multiple coaches and offensive coordinators early in his career. By failing to give the former No. 2 overall pick consistency, the Titans, as an organization let him down.
In Cleveland, Mariota would ideally push Mayfield, which is something the soon-to-be third-year veteran may need. We got to see what it was like when Baker was The King of Lou Groza Boulevard and results made for one of the worst quarterbacks in the league.
Then, if you want to factor analytics and Paul DePodesta into the equation—and I think you have to at this point, Mariota may be an option.
It wasn’t all that long ago, and I think some forget, that Mayfield was the analytics darling of the 2018 draft. Well, it wasn’t all that long ago that Mariota was the jewel of the QBASE projection system, an analytics tool used to evaluate players.
Andrew Healy invented the QBASE model for the analytics website, Football Outsiders. He was on staff when the team selected Mayfield and has been employed with the Browns since 2016. He’s currently a VP of Strategy.
History says it’s not a perfect system, as there have been misses, but for what it’s worth, it did correctly forecast Russell Wilson’s success. Might analytics turn the Browns’ QB room into the new Heisman House? Intriguing, but other factors have to play out.
For example, will Mariota accept a backup role, or will he look for a place where becoming the starter is more likely?
3. Sean Mannion
If the Browns don’t see Keenum as a fit, perhaps they’ll take a cheaper option in Minnesota backup Sean Mannion.
Mannion, who is listed at 6-foot-6, 230 pounds, is a former third-round pick, going 89th overall to the Rams when they played in St. Louis. He made the move to LA where he actually backed up Case Keenum during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
After Keenum left for Minnesota, Mannion backed up Jared Goff, backing up the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s Super Bowl.
Mannion started made just two career starts, taking QB1’s role on the depth chart during Week 17 of this past season. With the Vikings laying claim, Mannion started against the Chicago Bears, as the Vikings fell 21-19.
As far as production, Mannion’s numbers aren’t going to blow anyone anyway. He’s been a career backup and mostly fills in during blowouts. In five seasons, He’s completed 45 of 74 pass passes for 384 yards. He’s never thrown a touchdown pass and has tossed three picks.
Mannion is not the person you’d probably go out and sign if you’re playing Armchair GM, rather, this is looking at who Stefanski might want with Baker Mayfield in the quarterback’s room. Plus, he knows Stefanski’s offense.
4. Garrett Gilbert
Baker Mayfield did something no Browns quarterback has done since Tim Couch: Start every reagular-season game.
That’s what you want from your franchise quarterback, although we know the production wasn’t anything to celebrate.
But with Mayfield taking amost every snap, fans still know little about former AAF standout Garrett Gilbert. When Gilbert did enter a game, he wasn’t asked to throw.
Since he was given such little opportunity, my opinion still of him still remains hight, although it will be interesting to see how the re-vamped Browns’ front office will consider his services.
Gilbert is said to be a friend of Baker Mayfield’s, as the two attended the same high school where they were four years apart.
The 2019 season was a rough one for Mayfield, who was humbled on a weekly basis in his sophomore season.
Kitchens was hired because it was perceived publicly to be the best move for Mayfield. The two worked magic in the second half of 2018, and no one wanted to mess with it.
Baker continued to disappoint though, so you’ve got to wonder if Paul DePodesta and and the gang will let Baker keep his friend around, or if they’ll seek a player who better fits their “alignment.”