Let’s not forget the value of Baker Mayfield
By STEVE KING
I’ve been hearing, and reading, all the stuff about the Browns and the possibility of them giving Baker Mayfield a big new contract to make him their franchise quarterback in every way, shape and form.
There are all kinds of reasons why these things do, or don’t, happen, and they all revolve around the salary cap, which is the tail that wags the dog now in the NFL.
I get all that. I really do.
But let me say this, clearly so: Baker Mayfield is already the franchise quarterback, whether he’s being paid like it or yet. You know it. I know it. And the Browns know it. We all know it. You don’t need to be genius to figure that out.
As such, if I were the Browns, I would pay Mayfield what he’s worth and be done with it. It’s the issue hanging over the team right now, and the quicker they address it, and solve it, the better off the Browns are. Then they can move forward and address the other situations that really do need their attention.
I know the Browns fully understand this — after all, they have a lot of smart people working in Berea now — but nonetheless, it still needs to be repeated what a good quarterback means to a team, and as such what Mayfield means to the Browns.
Quarterback is, by far — it isn’t even close — the most important position in team sports. A team has to have a good one if it wants any chance at all of being a consistent winner.
If a team has a quarterback and has just average talent around him, then that’s OK. There’s still hope.
But if a mediocre quarterback is surrounded by great talent, then there is a ceiling on how good that team can be.
The quarterback, the quarterback, the quarterback. It’s just the way it is.
At long last, the Browns have that quarterback. And that they have a good group of players around him on offense, gives them the opportunity to really do some things. When they add to it by getting a deep-threat wide receiver, strengthening the defense and finding a kicker in whom they have total confidence, whether it’s an improved Cody Parkrey or someone else, then they will have the ability to go all the way.
Once more, though, it starts — and ends — with the quarterback, which is something that everyone, especially those running the Browns, must remember.
