CBS Sports will be showing six NFL games on Sunday in Week 2. I'm not about to sit here and say Cleveland at Tampa Bay is even in the top five of those, but we have an interesting storyline nonetheless in Baker Mayfield going against his former club that has continued to be snakebitten under center since the Heisman Trophy winner left town. ET kick in the Bucs' home opener from Raymond James Stadium.
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Cleveland took Mayfield at No. 1 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma – the year after the team went 0-16. Mayfield helped lead the club to seven wins as a rookie, although he didn't start until Week 3, and then 11 wins and the playoffs in 2020, including a Wild Card victory in Pittsburgh. Mayfield played through a severe left shoulder injury during the 2021 season and his production sharply declined.
That led the Browns to trade for Deshaun Watson from Houston and ship Mayfield to Carolina in July 2022. Here's what Bucs senior offensive assistant/pass game specialist Ken Zampese said this week about Mayfield's time ending in Cleveland as Zampese was the Browns' QBs coach in 2018: "The year we were there, we were one of the best offenses in the NFL the second half of that season, 5-3, in a place that was -- before that season started -- 1-31. The script got flipped and the city came alive because they finally drafted a quarterback that worked out for them and they mucked it up.
They mucked it up." Mayfield still holds the most wins (29), passing yards (14,125), and passing touchdowns (92) by a Cleveland quarterback since Bernie Kosar from 1985-93 and is the only Browns QB with a playoff win this century. In fact, Mayfield, Kosar and Vinny Testaverde are the only Cleveland QBs with a playoff win since 1970. Mayfield lost to the Browns in the 2022 season opener while with Carolina in his only other game against the franchise.
Jacoby Brissett was the Cleveland QB at the time. Since that trade, Cleveland quarterbacks combined are last in the NFL in completion percentage (59%) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (79:77). The team has used 10 different starting quarterbacks, tied with the Raiders and Jets for the most.
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