CALM DOWN, GUYS, CALM DOWN

By Steve King

I heard some network radio guys – I won’t mention their names for fear of embarrassing them – talking the other morning about how the Browns were so stupid for taking quarterback Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft last week.

 

 

After all, as these guys pointed out with such vim and vigor that you could practically hear them spitting into the microphone as they rattled on with their illogical logic, the Browns traded for Tyrod Taylor in free agency. How can he be the starter when the Browns plucked Mayfield at the top of the draft to be their franchise quarterback?

 

 

It’s a quarterback controversy in that locker room already, and the Browns have not practiced together as a whole team yet. Come on, Browns, get it right.

 

 

Take a breath, radio guys. Y’all got it wrong. Just ask Browns head coach Hue Jackson.

 

 

Asked on Friday as the Browns opened their rookie minicamp if it mattered that Mayfield, as he met with the media, was complimentary of Taylor, Jackson said:

 

 

“I think it matters because like I said, I am not going to back off of this and we can keep writing this narrative, Tyrod Taylor is the starting quarterback of this football team. That will not change.

 

“I think what happened was Tyrod went up and introduced himself, and I think that was big on Tyrod’s part. He welcomed Baker, willing to work with him. I think that is where it starts. You have to build a friendship with people.

 

“On the other side of that, I thought that Baker was outstanding. I watched that interaction between the two and it was like they were long-lost friends. There was a hug and all that. That is how you start to build a relationship with someone. Hopefully, that will teach Baker what it is like to be a quarterback in the National Football League.”

 

Being just the back-up for now, of course.