Baker Mayfield On Eventual New Team: “If they don’t like me, that’s fine”
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Out in Cleveland, quarterback Baker Mayfield finds himself sitting in limbo as he waits to see how is future is going to play out now that the Browns have brought in Deshaun Watson.
What’s surprising is that he doesn’t seem to have any suitors, which considering that we’re only about a month away from when most teams start OTAs and minicamps is fairly surprising. Reports have said that the whispers from inside Cleveland indicated the Browns were frustrated with Mayfield’s attitude and that apparently played a role in what sparked them to consider moving on from him.
Initially, it surprised many. But the fact Mayfield remains available essentially reveals that there must have been some truth to that since no one has stepped up and made an aggressive push for him.
The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd had a good column on the situation, which essentially summed it up fairly well:
At some point, you wonder if Mayfield realizes no one in the NFL wants him right now, and more importantly, why that might be?
Why is it the Colts had the opportunity to get a former No. 1 pick, who turns 27 on Thursday, for pennies on the dollar, someone who should be entering the prime of his career? And why did they elect to try and squeeze a couple more good seasons out of a 36-year-old Ryan instead? Does Baker get that? Does he ever wonder why?
Watson comes with more baggage than Delta Air Lines. Why did the Browns look at his 22 civil cases alleging sexual misconduct and sexual assault and determine that was a better bet at quarterback than the four years they had already invested in Mayfield?
It’s definitely a little crazy. Mayfield came into the league with a lot of questions and he seemed to have toned it down publicly the last couple of seasons after many of these concerns came up in his first year.
However, it sounds like what he did on camera vs off of it may have been the difference. On camera, he appeared to be doing and saying the right things. Behind closed doors, he obviously showed a different side and for someone who appeared to be Cleveland’s future, the fact they targeted Watson at all is telling.
Now Mayfield is left wondering where he’ll end up but one thing he says won’t change is that he’s going to continue to be himself regardless of what happens.
“I feel like I tried to force it when things on the field weren’t going well in the past couple of years. I feel like I’m gonna go in (to his new destination) and be myself because that’s worked for me in the past; I’m gonna go in with the same work ethic/mentality,” Mayfield said in a recent “Ya Never Know” podcast via TheAthletic. “And if they don’t like me, that’s fine.
“But when I step on the field and I play as confident as I am, and what I think I’m going to do on the field the next time I get a chance to do it, I’ll earn the respect of the guys who didn’t appreciate it from the beginning. If I’m worried about getting them to like me, what am I doing? They don’t care if I like them, either. They want their quarterback to win. They’re trying to get a paycheck. If their team wins, they get paid. So the guys who don’t personally like me? That’s fine. But I have to have their respect. And the way I do that is just working my ass off and being myself.”
(EDITORS NOTE: Portions of the above appeared in this morning’s news/notes column.)
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