Dawgs By Nature
Cleveland Browns fans had a rough go of it in Week 2 of the NFL season.
On Sunday, the Browns dropped to 0-2 on the season as turnovers and an inability to cover wide receiver Devontez Walker helped turn a 10-3 halftime deficit into a 41-17 defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens.
While fans were still recovering from that, the Tampa Buccaneers and Houston Texans kicked off on Monday Night Football in a game featuring Tampa quarterback Baker Mayfield and Houston running back Nick Chubb, once backfield mates on the Browns.
Sadly, Chubb is a shell of his former self, and he had just 18 rushing yards deep into the fourth quarter before ripping off a 25-yard touchdown run to give the Texans the lead. No matter that the Buccaneers likely allowed Chubb to score so they could get the ball back, seeing Chubb running into the end zone still hit the souls of Browns fans hard.
That was topped, at least for some, when Mayfield led the Buccaneers on a game-winning 11-play, 80-yard touchdown drive. It was the second week in a row that Mayfield led a game-winning drive with less than two minutes remaining.
Since joining the Buccaneers in 2023, Mayfield has helped Tampa to consecutive NFC South Division titles, and his 74 regular-season touchdown passes are more than Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, and Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Browns have played nine different quarterbacks who have combined to throw 65 touchdowns since Cleveland moved on from Mayfield after the 2021 season.
Because the Browns are still trying to find a quarterback who can play as well as Mayfield, there are still going to be questions and stories about why the team simply had to move on from a player they selected No. 1 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, led them to the playoffs, and energized a fan base from the first time he stepped on the field seven years ago today.
It turns out that the Browns would have been fine keeping Mayfield despite a rough 2021 season, when he played through a shoulder injury that ultimately required surgery. But the prospect of acquiring Deshaun Watson was too much for the club to pass up.
That is according to the latest from cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto, who talked about how Mayfield’s tenure with the Browns came to an end:
“I was told by two high-ranking people had they not gone after (Deshaun) Watson, they would have stayed with Baker. See, they became obsessed as an organization with Watson. They didn’t care that he sat out a year. They didn’t care that he sat out a year after signing a four-year contract.
“(The Browns) probably just kept watching those tapes of 2020 when Watson led the league in passing yardage and was in the Pro Bowl, and dreaming.”
Of course, those dreams of...
