The Cleveland Browns selected Oklahoma City quarterback Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Mayfield had his moments in Cleveland, but he didn’t do enough to earn a second contract before the Browns traded him to the Carolina Panthers ahead of the 2022 season. After a stop with the Los Angeles Rams, Mayfield appears to have found his groove as the starter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Finding his place in the NFL has given him the wisdom to look back on his time with the Browns and admit he made some mistakes.
“The last year in Cleveland, as beat up as I was, looking back,” Mayfield said during an appearance on the show Sorry for my opinion podcast. “I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. Obviously, I wouldn’t change the fact that I played through injuries and everything, but in the midst of all that, I probably should have had surgery and sat out for a year.”
Mayfield admitted that his stubbornness led him to try to play despite a shoulder injury in his final season in Cleveland.
“I watch the tapes of those games now, because after the surgery I had to relearn my throwing motion,” Mayfield said. “I got in touch with a trainer and re-did everything because my arm was stuck to my body, my leg was banged up, a lot of factors. Like I said, I’m a stubborn guy.”
Still, Mayfield respects Browns fans.
“Part of it was feeling like I was part of the Cleveland community, with the working-class attitude of ‘we’re going to fight our way through.’ Not that I’m blaming the people of Cleveland, but I feel like that was the attitude we had in the beginning and everyone accepted it, but I wasn’t able to play to the best of my ability in any way.”
(Sorry for my opinion)
