Baker Mayfield may not have been having fun with the Cleveland Browns but he’s on his last shot

Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield didn’t have fun in his last season with the team.

I would assume that Baker Mayfield will forever be a Cleveland Browns legend, in the same vein that Dennis Northcutt is. He gets credit for leading the Browns to the playoffs for the first time since 2002 and the team’s first playoff win since the 1990s. Right or wrong, he gets that credit. He’ll forever be that guy.

Still, the Browns decided that he wasn’t doing well enough, and opted to move on from him. They brought in the controversial Deshaun Watson to subpar results so far, and Mayfield ended up on three teams since Watson’s arrival; the Carolina Panthers, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

While the Panthers were a dumpster fire, the Rams were not, and while Mayfield had some very impressive moments, was not the No. 1 overall pick he was supposed to be with the Rams. Still, he earned his next and potentially last shot as a starter with the Buccaneers.

He’s had an up and down two years and this is a chance for him to develop some stability. He’s also of the belief that he feels like he fits with the Bucs, something he didn’t feel elsewhere. He feels like he’s such a fit, that he’s having fun again, something he claims he wasn’t having the last few years in both Carolina and Cleveland, telling the New York Post;

"It was the first time I had fun playing football in a few years. It brought that feeling of having that success and really remembering what it was all about, Kind of hit the reset button for me."

Baker Mayfield is on his last chance in the NFL

I like Mayfield, but you can’t deny that he’s had his struggles. I feel like most of it has been mental issues; forcing passes to try and erase some of his prior mistakes. When he’s calm and given leeway, he can be a good quarterback. We saw that in 2018 and 2020. He can be an objectively good passer.

But he has to stop forcing wild throws. He’s got the talent in Tamba to make this concept a reality but he has to be patient and let his offense work for him. If he can’t do that, this will likely be his last shot as a starter in the NFL. That doesn’t mean he won’t be able to get that spot back, look at Kurt Warner and Jeff Garcia, both guys left the teams they found success in, only to become bench guys for a spot or two (or three in Garcia’s case), until someone else gave them a shot.

Mayfield is going to have to earn any more shots at starting after this, should he come up short.

• Published on 07/03/2023 at 22:30 PM
• Last updated at 07/03/2023 at 22:30 PM