Bad news for the Browns. Baker Mayfield is bitter.

Some players back down from challenges.

Others revel in them.

Mayfield is in the latter category, and that’s bad news for the Browns.

The former Cleveland quarterback has, of course, and hardly surprisingly so, been named the starter for the Carolina Panthers when the two teams meet in the regular season opener on Sept. 11 in Charlotte.

Mayfield is at his best – his bitter best, that is — when someone disrespects him, as the Browns did when, in a veritable blink of an eye, they traded with the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson and then gave him a fully-guaranteed $230 million contract. Just like that, Mayfield went from being the Browns starter, a job he had held since early in the 2018 season just months after they had taken him with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, to someone who was completely unwanted.

From that day a little less than 4½ years ago to his being jettisoned to the Panthers in a trade this summer, Mayfield fell about as far and as fast as a player can. He looked like a meteor flaming out and rocketing down to earth.

Boom!

Ouch!

But all that did was fuel the fire within him to show his doubters that he is far from finished, and he will have the perfect situation, the limelight of opening week, and against the perfect opponent, to do it.

Ladies and gentlemen, you can’t make this stuff up. No one would believe it.

But believe it you must, for it is oh, so true.

And guess what? I’m betting on the bold, daring guy who so famously planted the Oklahoma flag into the block O at midfield at Ohio Stadium. Now he’s chomping at the bit to stick the dagger into the Browns.

Steve King