Browns: Baker Mayfield pulled due to injury, will continue to start if healthy

The Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski made a point to clarify that Baker Mayfield wasn’t pulled due to performance.

Despite a number of “experts” claiming Baker Mayfield was “benched”, that’s not actually the case according to Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski. On his post-game presser with the media, Stefanski was very clear that Mayfield was not benched due to performance, but due to his rib injury and the number of hits Mayfield took during the game.

At the end of the 3rd quarter, Stefanski pulled Mayfield and put in Case Keenum in relief for a game that was already out of hand at that point. Keenum faired no better than Mayfield behind the offensive line, having a near-identical day to Mayfield, sans the two turnovers. Keenum only completed 50% of his passes for 46 yards against mostly a second-team Steeler defense.

Mayfield’s game wasn’t great, going 10 of 18 (55%) for 119 years and two interceptions. Most of the game Mayfield was getting smacked around, with the Steelers sacking him four times, and giving him another seven extra hits for good measure. The running game since Nick Chubb’s injury has also largely been ineffective, with whatever goodwill D’Ernest Johnson accumulated against the Dallas Cowboys now being erased over several poor performances, with only one or two big runs to his name.

It might be the offensive line as a whole, or it might be that Chubb is that much better than Kareem Hunt and Johnson.

To his credit, Stefanski didn’t mince words, nor did he play cloy. He flat out stated despite Mayfield getting pulled due to concerns about his health, that he was the team’s starter going forward and that Stefanski was the one to blame for his bad performance for not finding ways of protecting him more.