Baker Mayfield’s NFL career begins with rookie minicamp
By Chip Rouse
When Baker Mayfield walked — or should we say galloped? — onto the Cleveland Brown’s practice field last weekend, the experience was very unlike the beginning of his college career.
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A two-time All-American and the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner compiled a 39-9 record as a starting quarterback at Texas Tech and Oklahoma after walking on at both schools.
On Friday, at the Cleveland Browns, practice facility, Mayfield took the field as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 National Football League Draft. The city of Cleveland already has one king in town. Make know mistake, though, Mayfield would like nothing better than to be the next one to wear the crown in the city, once known as the Mistake by the Lake (as in Lake Erie), that has seen a resurgence in its professional sports franchises over the last five years.
Mayfield would like to be the one to lead the Browns back to respectability, much like what has happened with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and the Cleveland Indians in Major League Baseball.
That will be an extremely steep and rocky hill to climb, but that is the kind of challenge that seems to bring out the best in Mayfield, or at least that has been the case up to this point in the career of the two-time college walk-on.
Cleveland has won one football game out of the last 32. In the past five seasons, the Browns have produced a combined record of 15-65, and they are 38-113 over the last decade. Cleveland has experienced two winning seasons in this century, and that encompasses nearly the entire history of this new Browns team, which came into existence in 1999 after Art Modell, the owner of the original Cleveland NFL franchise, left town for Baltimore in 1996 and took his team with him.
The rebirth of the Browns has not been a success story in Cleveland. The Renaissance Browns are 88-207 (.298) in their 20-year history. They have had 28 starting quarterbacks during that time. Mayfield becomes the 29th, assuming that at some point he does take over the No.1 role.
Only once before Mayfield had the new Browns picked a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick. That was Tim Couch, out of Kentucky, in their debut season (1999). He was out of football after five seasons.
Cleveland has a lengthy history of missing out on some very good NFL quarterbacks because of some mind-boggling draft decisions. The Browns took Couch with the No. 1 overall pick over Donovan McNabb, who played 13 seasons in the NFL, was voted into six Pro Bowls and led the Philadelphia Eagles to the 2004 Super Bowl.
In subsequent NFL Drafts, the Browns have been extremely gun shy about taking quarterbacks with their top pick. They selected tight end Kellen Winslow over QB Ben Roethlisberger in 2004, they took wide receiver Braylon Edwards over QB Aaron Rogers in 2005, and they took Johnny Manziel over Derek Carr in 2014. And that is just a few in a long string of bad draft decisions made by Cleveland Browns management in the team’s relatively short history.
Mayfield is hoping to break that horrific pattern and help right the ship in Cleveland. He probably won’t be the opening-day starter at QB for the Browns, That job will fall to seven-year NFL veteran Tyrod Taylor, acquired by the Browns in March in a trade with Buffalo. That will be a good thing for Mayfield, allowing him to learn and progress under Taylor in a backup role as he becomes acclimated to the NFL and the Browns’ offense.
The next chapter in the Baker Mayfield story began last Friday and Saturday at Cleveland Browns’ rookie minicamp. The former Oklahoma quarterback was joined at the rookie workout sessions by the Browns other eight 2018 draft picks, 13 undrafted free agents and 28 other players who were invited to tryout with the team. Among the latter group are former Sooner teammates Erick Wren, an offensive lineman, and defensive lineman D.J. Ward.
Next up for Mayfield in terms of practice sessions with the Browns are three separate OTA (organized team activities) sessions: May 20-22, May 30-June 1 and June 12-15. That will be followed by preseason training camp in late July.
When Cleveland general manager John Dorsey and his scouting staff were doing due diligence on the top four quarterbacks available in the draft, Sports Illustrated NFL writer Peter King wrote that Dorsey asked to watch one of Mayfield’s college games.
"“What’s his (Mayfield’s) best game,” the new Browns’ GM asked assistant GM Eliot Wolfe. “Turn on any game,” Wolfe replied. “Seriously.”"
That’s the kind of future Cleveland envisions with this No. 1 draft pick.
We’re hoping they get this one right.