Baker Mayfield faces the Cleveland Browns on Sunday in his fourth year as starting quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, renewing hostilities years after a franchise-altering trade. According to Buccaneers senior offensive assistant and pass game specialist Ken Zampese, speaking to ESPN’s Jenna Laine, the Browns mishandled their former top draft pick by trading him away for Deshaun Watson.
The Roots of the Mayfield-Browns Tension
Eight years to the day after Baker Mayfield made his debut for the Browns on September 20, 2018, coming off the bench to beat the New York Jets, he prepares to face his old franchise as a Buc. Ken Zampese, who served as Mayfield’s position coach during that rookie campaign, pointed out to ESPN that Cleveland squandered a rare stability at the quarterback position.
“They had the guy,” Zampese said, according to ESPN. “They had the guy and they gave him up.”
That departure arrived when the Browns front office pursued Deshaun Watson, sending Mayfield packing to the Carolina Panthers before eventual stops that landed him in Tampa. During their shared season in Cleveland, Mayfield and the offense finished the second half of the year with a 5-3 record. That turnaround lifted a franchise that sat at 1-31 prior to that season’s start, sparking a resurgence across the city.
“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,” Zampese told ESPN. “They mucked it up.”
Playoff Success and the Turning Point in Cleveland
He led the team to a postseason appearance, a wild-card round win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a narrow divisional-round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
An injury-riddled 2021 campaign altered the trajectory, prompting Cleveland leadership to pivot away from the former No. 1 overall pick. Zampese downplayed whether current members of the Browns organization regret that decision as Sunday’s kickoff approaches.
“I don’t know,” Zampese said, via ESPN. “It doesn’t matter. We got the guy we wanted [in Tampa] and that’s what’s important.”
The Buccaneers enter the matchup looking to bounce back from an opening loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
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