The Baker Mayfield era is all but over in Cleveland, though the Browns are finding it extremely hard to find any NFL team willing to take him and his contract on.
While we wait to find out if the Browns eventually just cut Mayfield or leave him on their roster in case of emergency or until someone finally decides to trade for him, more details about what went wrong are starting to leak out.
ESPN’s Jake Trotter penned an article on Thursday that outlines some of the many factors that got Baker and the Browns here. Included is a tidbit about the infamous video that Odell Beckham’s father posted on Instagram when the receiver was trying to force his way out of town. In the video, Beckham’s dad showed highlights of times when Mayfield didn’t throw to Odell and then also took shots at Mayfield in the video’s comments.
As Trotter notes, plenty of Browns players wanted to see OBJ remain with the team. However, that didn’t happen and the receiver was released, eventually joining the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. Meanwhile, when asked about the video, one Browns player didn’t mince words.
“Shortly after Browns coach Kevin Stefanski announced Beckham wouldn’t be coming back, another starter was asked if he’d seen the video Beckham Sr. had posted of Mayfield misfiring on throws to his son. “Why would I watch the video?” the player asked rhetorically, according to a source familiar with the remark. “I see it every day in practice.”
Oh boy. pic.twitter.com/edYCPG2S1j
— Offseason Chopz (@Pchopz_) May 5, 2022
Things continued getting messier for Mayfield who, according to the article, also privately wondered if he was purposefully being sabotaged by head coach Kevin Stefanski and the Browns franchise to look bad so that it was easier to get rid of him.
Whenever Mayfield finally moves on and finds a new NFL team, you can be sure he’s going to circle the Browns on the schedule. Clearly, there’s some bad blood between the two sides that isn’t going away anytime soon.
[ESPN]