NFL Network's Kurt Warner: Cleveland Shouldn’t Have Given Up on Baker Mayfield | The Rich Eisen Show 

Browns definitely messed up big time getting rid of baker. since they got watson 2 years ago baker has played undeniably better. His stats are better across the board, he took tb to the playoffs and won another playoff game and was the probowl mvp this year. Watson was a waste of 230 mil and 3 first round picks.

I really liked Baker Mayfield. I never thought he had a terrible season with the Browns. There were two seasons back in 2019 and 2021 where his interceptions were a bit high but I never thought it was because he was a poor quarterback. I thought the team was lacking and the coaching was a bit dysfunctional. When you watch him throw, he plays pretty good under pressure. That's a true hallmark of a good quarterback. I always had a feeling he would do well somewhere else. He's a good quarterback, it's nice to see him in a better system than in cleveland.

Mayfield is treated as a failure in Cleveland despite breaking the NFL passing touchdown record his first year in Cleveland with Jarvis Landry as his #1 receiver, and winning them a playoff game. Plus, he had to battle having a ton of head coaches and offensive coordinators. Not a very good place to develop for any QB. At the start of the 2021 season before he hurt his shoulder, he was on fire. Now they have a 230 million guaranteed QB, who in 2 years has thrown for a total of 14 touch downs! Cleveland fans would say he can only win with a strong supporting cast, which is ironic since the Browns had 1 win in the 2 previous years before he showed up. That he needed a run game, even though the Buccaneers won the division with the worst run game in the NFL. It's crazy. If you ever wonder why gas prices are so high, it's from Browns fans gaslighting themselves.

As a fan of Cleveland I agree. Baker was the best QB we’ve had in a long time, and we betrayed that for someone who hasn’t been as available

Could have used the 230 million to put even more weapons on the browns team for mayfield

Browns did Baker dirty.

Bakers just a baller that'll give it full effort. Never understood Clevelands thinking but there's a reason they suck

I'm glad they did. He's in a much better place now. Cleveland is toxic.

I never understood why the Browns turned so fast on Baker since his last season with the Browns he played with a shoulder injury.

ohh believe me, all of us Cleveland fans know and don't understand it to this day.

I said it then and I'll say it now. This was the dumbest sports move I've ever seen. It wasn't popular to say years ago, but now everyone is starting to see it. Haslam is a terrible owner.

The Steelers coveted Mayfield and they would not trade him in the division. We might have another SB ring right now if we had him.

Love the show rich!

The factory of sadness saga will continue for few more years of cap limit with Watson. It'll be entertaining that's for sure.

Browns do what the Browns do.

Top picks don't go to top franchises

Curt warner is the guy that would know

Will see how this ages

He’s better than deshaun, especially for the 230 million Deshaun is making

Too many Browns fans are OSU fans and they never could get over Baker beating them.

Their loss our gain

I'm a browns fan wish they would of kept baker he made football in Cleveland fun again

Deslut Watson ain't winning crap in the playoffs.

I think everyone knew this after last season in Tampa and how he played with the Rams the few games he started. He is a good QB - and Cleveland obviously still does not know what this means. The fact they are going to try again with Deshawn Watson may prove it (especially if he is awful again).

AGREED

no fkn duh they shouldn't have. Cleveland instead chose to build around role models such as Deshaun, James, and qb clobberer Myles Garrett. they're a clown establishment and that's why the most they've accomplished in like 50 years is a second round exit.

Funny how you say we gave up on him when we shouldn’t have but Kurt Stephen A and couple other while he was here injured or not they kept saying we needed to move on from him before the playoff win he got us and after the win. But now we moved on to a qb who is better just was suspended and hurt yall wanna Champion for him. Cleveland fans love Baker but we know baker too the media loves him now because he’s not in Cleveland anymore that’s it. He was here instead of Watson the “ Can Baker win the big games” headlines would still be rolling😂😂 and espn wonders why people watch player podcast more

I think it's fortunate that Baker got out of Cleveland. The Browns are a train wreck where careers go to die.

With Brady, Eli, Big Ben, Brees and (eventually) Rodgers retired, that’s 12 Super Bowl wins right there (throw in Flacco & Wilson and that’s 14 of the last 23 Superbowls). The field feels more open to make/win a SB than ever, so teams will burn through QBs faster than ever before. Dak is the current ‘long term, same team’ games leader !!! He’s the only player from the 2016 Draft and before still the starting QB at his team

Darnold and Mayfield both played on the 2022 Panthers, below are a comparison of their performances in games which they started. BAKER MAYFIELD Starts: 6 Passing TD: 4 Rushing TD: 1 INT: 6 FMB: 5 Passing YDS: 1,158 Rushing YDS: 52 Total YDS: 1,210 Pass Attempts: 186 Rush Attempts: 16 Record: 1W - 5L (Mayfield appeared in 1 additional game against the Bengals, coming in during the top of the 3rd quarter and down by 35 points (some would call this “garbage time”). He threw for 2 TD, 0 INT, and 155 YDS. The Panthers lost: 21-42) SAM DARNOLD Starts: 6 Passing TD: 7 Rushing TD: 2 INT: 3 FMB: 6 Passing YDS: 1,143 Rushing YDS: 106 Total YDS: 1,249 Pass Attempts: 140 Rush Attempts: 26 Record: 4W - 2L (During Baker Mayfield’s time as a 2022 Panther, Christian McCaffery played in 5 out of 6 Mayfield starts, and DJ Moore played in 6 out of 6 Mayfield starts. During Sam Darnold’s time as a 2022 Panther, Christian McCaffery played in 0 out of 6 Darnold starts, and DJ Moore played in 6 out of 6 Darnold starts) Based on these stats, I believe people are heavily undermining the ability of Darnold especially when compared to Mayfield. We have an identical sample size for these two players who were on the same team in the same year, and people look right over it. Darnold can absolutely have a major year on the Vikings, given what Mayfield did on the Bucs.

Sam Darnold will never eliminate his "happy feet". A little pressure and he loses it!

look at the best team for QB development, Green Bay had Aaron sti for couple of years stepped in and became Franchise QB, Jordan Love sat a couple of years, stepped in strgguled but is now looking like our Franchsie QB i have zero doubt if Jordan Love had been thrown in 2 years ago he would been poor, and probably be a poor back up somewhere if he was still in the game

I had to sit through a State Farm Insurance ad to watch this. Creepy.

He was okay in Cleveland. With the line beat up and no Chubb he would not have been effective. Obviously they over paid for Watson but you got to play it out now and hope for the best.

Been believing this since the day that they gave up on him. Some Browns fans were trashing Mayfield and calling him garbage after he was gone from the team and yet here we are after he had a decent year in Tampa (starting right after Tom Brady retires even) and Clevelands current very expensive QB got outlasted by Joe Flacco last year. Is Mayfield one of the top QBs in the league? Of course not...but he is still a solid Quarterback and it's not easy to find solid quarterbacks.

I believe Baker insisted on being traded.

I live in Akron a browns fan for a long time, yes Baker was a great guy he had a bad year because he was hurt, I wish he would have stayed but when Watson got that big contract he acted like a 10 year old and even knowing he would start most of the games he just gave up, I think he knows it was a mistake, hope he comes back some day

Agreed. Browns did the "Browns" thing. Always shooting themselves in the foot.

I don't believe that Baker has improved as much as it looks like to most people. I think mostly, it's his circumstances that have. Most of his former HCs & OCs are out of the NFL. Stefanski's still around, but he was new to the job when Baker was there. NOBODY in Cleveland thought he was doing a good job as a play caller back then. And NO new HC steps in and immediately has a good grip on such a complex job. (What all his players are capable of, what works for his crew, etc.).

Browns did what the Browns do, they take a QB high in the draft and turn them into a failure. I mean if we have 18+ QB's failing in Cleveland, it's about the team not the players.

As a Browns fan, I think Baker needs a very specific set of circumstances to be good, and it just so happens that the Buccaneers had those circumstances. Baker thrives on throwing to bigger targets...bigger WRs. When a WR's game is more the shiftiness/separation game, his chemistry with them has been horrible. Obviously the Odell one is documented, but the season before his Bucs renaissance when Baker looked AWFUL with the Panthers, he couldn't hit DJ Moore to save his life. It was so bad, that PJ Walker and Sam Darnold were instant upgrades in terms of QB production and especially in terms of actually being able to unlock DJ Moore to make dynamic plays for them. With the Browns, Baker Mayfield connected better with Donovan Peoples-Jones and David Njoku than he did with OBJ. With the Panthers, one of his very few bright spots was a 67 yard TD pass to big Laviska Shenault. With the Rams, Baker found chemistry with 6'3" Ben Skowronek of all people. And now with the Bucs, he gets the best big WRs he's ever had in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Could the Browns have build a team specifically for this skillset profile, and in hindsight drafted CeeDee Lamb or Tee Higgins? Or if they'd kept Baker in 2022 instead of trading for Deshaun, could they have traded up for Drake London and targeted that bigger bodied guy rather than a Garrett Wilson? Possibly. I don't think that WR profile is what meshes best with Kevin Stefanski's offense though (he favors the route runners like Amari and now Jerry Jeudy), and I don't think Baker Mayfield is the best fit for Stefanski. Granted, nor is Watson so far. Joe Flacco has by far been the most electric looking QB for the Browns in Stefanski's offense.

Glad they let him go. Baker is no longer in the biggest joke of a franchise in sports history. From Akron, go Bucs! F the clowns.

browns f'd up. definitely should have kept shake n bake

Everyone also seems to conveniently forget... Darnold and Baker in the SAME Panthers offense the SAME season in 2022. Baker was atrocious. Sam was actually solid. Not great, but certainly credible. But Darnold has yet to have a GOOD season, and Baker has had three good seasons and three bad seasons in those 6 years. If Sam Darnold does end up as the starter with the Vikings and has a healthy Justin Jefferson as his top target and Kevin O'Connell coaching him up and calling plays, not to mention Jordan Addison and TJ Hockenson as other very strong weapons...if it doesn't go well this year, then it's never gonna happen for him. For Darnold, this has to be his equivalent of Tannehill going to the Titans.

Its something bad teams have always done. Quit way to early. Happens all the time.

Man baker been on two teams previously of him getting his contract y’all just want say the browns name 😂

Funny how everyone is saying this now, but his last 2 years in Cleveland, national sports pundits were essentially calling him a bust. Can't have it both ways. Either he was an almost-bust that revived his career, or he was good enough all along. Pick one.

The only people who treated Mayfield harsh was the tongues of the fans... Same ones talking down on tge Browns in the comments.... Baker played his contract out, the Browns didn't give up on him... An opportunity presented itself to get a QB that had better stats within the same rookie pay scale in Watson... Nobody thought Baker could be better than Watson.... Watson is less turnover prone & better scrambler against broken plays... That's the formula for winning football from a QB... Baker was too inconsistent despite the carosel of offensive coordinators... The core was intact by Baker's final rookie year... Can't waste it to figure out which Baker you'll get in the future...💯💯💯

Mayfield lost the locker room, bringing in OBJ was the downfall there and once your qb loses the support of the team around him theres no point in keeping him.. when 1 guy cries (obj) it effects the whole team so their options were trade half the team away or trade Mayfield and obj away

I have no idea why Kurt Warner is in the hall of fame. Look at his stats at his years. He had a few good years and then he had 3 or 4 terrible years and got canned. By the rams, then he went to the cardinals. And was mediocre and then had another good year. He's not some icon of quarterback knowledge. Like he's being treated today it's ridiculous

The truth is he never is gonna get past the divisional rounds . Cleveland made the right decision

kurt lookin a little strange..

These takes are gonna look real funny this time next year. Baker had really good years in cleveland. His problem was he couldnt be counted on tear in and year out. TB about to find out if Baker has truly grown.

Friendly reminder that the Browns offered Baker virtually the exact same contract he just signed after the 2020 season and he rejected it. I miss him on my team but let’s be fr

Kurt Warner said that he's not sure there are 32 other QBs who can play better than Baker Mayfield! I think that's basically saying that if Baker Mayfield was playing for the Chiefs, he could have won a SB ring also.

Guys like Bake and Carr are good to above average QB's that might get you into the playoffs and win a game, but will probably never get you a Superbowl. Teams know that and strive for the elite QB to get them to the big show.

Bad take

Baker will very likely never win a Super Bowl. He had immaturity/ego issues in Cleveland. Baker has a huge arm, but he can not extend plays very well. He also had a very good offensive line and an elite running game when with the Browns. Baker is a tough kid, but he never should have been the number one overall pick.

The bucs made baker look good not the other way around don’t get it twisted.

He got his feelings hurt. Wah. Wah. Nothing wrong for looking for another option. This is a business and he was supposed to be a professional. He could have remained and proved the Browns wrong.

Baker wasnt going to lead the browns to win the superbowl so they moved on.

Let’s be clear. He played his best football halfway through the 2020 season. Had a shoulder injury, and inconsistent play in 21. Browns discussed a trade with Watson that fell through. Baker demanded a trade. Browns one upped their bid for Watson. Baker played for 2 other teams in 22 only having 1 good game. But yes lets bash CLE…

Um didn't he end his season on a interception. Baker is not consistent and cannot win a game with the ball in his hands. Cleveland delt with him being inconsistent for 4yrs. We needed an upgrade to take us to the SB Baker is not that guy.

Baker was/is mediocre. You can't win playoff games or the superbowl with mediocre but go ahead and keep trying to pile on Cleveland for attempting to be great. I think Berry has done an amazing job.

Be real, come on already, Mayfield is not the answer, and the Bucs are doomed to mediocrity.

Baker wasn’t nearly as good as these folks wish he was last year. He’s still just a Joe average QB. He wasn’t horrible in Cleveland and wasn’t great with the Bucs. He’s a JAG

Sammy D sucks

Everyone is talking about the talent. Baker had to go because he wasn’t meshing with the locker room and very immature. A new change of scenery helped him grow. Wouldn’t have happened here