The Cleveland Browns made one of the most spectacularly bad decisions in NFL history in 2022 when they sold the farm to trade for QB Deshaun Watson while Baker Mayfield continues to prove that they didn’t have to. That’s the story the first week of the 2024 season is telling, and it’s one many are reading with schadenfreude.
Deshaun Watson looked like something between a hot mess and a dumpster fire yesterday, whereas Mayfield…did not. That alone is sufficient to call the Browns’ decision into question, as if it hasn’t been amply for two years.
Let’s start with the basics. The Cowboys dominated the Browns in the opener, 33-17, while the Buccaneers handily beat the Commanders. Deshaun Watson went 24-for-45 for 169 yards with 1 touchdown to 2 interceptions. Baker Mayfield went 24-for-30 for 289 yards with 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
Now, stating the very obvious, Watson and Mayfield won’t play like this every week, and the Browns did go 5-1 last year in the six games in which Watson played. Mayfield took the Buccaneers to the playoffs with a 9-8 record last year and even won a playoff game.
Mayfield, by the way, still has the Browns’ only playoff win since their reorganization, While Deshaun Watson has only managed to play 13 games for them. The thing is, even though they won games with him last year, he never really looked great. Perhaps a moment here, a quarter there, but not worth what they traded for him.
We only got the final tally on that trade, in fact, at the end of April of this year. They traded three first-round picks, which the Houston Texans turned into Kenyon Green, Will Anderson Jr., and Kamari Lassiter and Jamal Hill. A third-round pick turned into Tank Dell, also producing Dameon Pierce and Caden Bullock. The Browns got Deshaun Watson, after releasing Baker Mayfield, and a part of the Jerry Jeudy trade compensation.
But the ultimate question is this: do the Browns look any closer to where they want to be with Deshaun Watson than they would have if they had stuck with Baker Mayfield? According to reports, Kevin Stefanski was willing to move forward with Mayfield. It was owner Jimmy Haslam who insisted on pushing for the trade.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the Browns will win games with Watson this year, maybe make the playoffs. But it certainly seems like the Browns could be doing at least that if not more with Mayfield. And they wouldn’t have had to give up a sultan’s ransom to find out. All they needed was the exercise patience and allow a young player to mature.
Mayfield even made the Pro Bowl last season, posting a 28-to-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Unlike Watson with the Browns, Mayfield was frequently the reason when the Buccaneers succeeded. And don’t you think the Browns could use guys like Will Anderson and Tank Dell right now?
