SEASON IS OVER, BUT BAKER MAYFIELD STILL MAKING NEWS
By STEVE KING
For the second time in as many days, Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield took home a big award from a major media outlet.
A day after sportsillustrated.com named him as its 2018 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, USA Today on Wednesday selected Mayfield as its 2019 NFL Breakout Player.
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The piece, which picked breakout players in a variety of sports, including college basketball (Duke’s Zion Williamson), college football (Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence), women’s soccer (Mallory Pugh), baseball (Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays), the NBA (Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks) and Olympics track and field (Noah Lyles), began this way:
“2018 saw many athletes vault into national prominence. They included U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka and Los Angeles Angels phenom Shoehei Ohtani. Some breakout stars even waited until championship games to make their mark (Villanova basketball player Donte DiVincenzo, now on the Milwaukee Bucks).
“Here’s a look at emerging athletes who appear poised to have breakout performances in 2018.”
This is what staff writer Scott Gleeson had to say about Mayfield:
“He won the Heisman Trophy and was he No. 1 overall draft pick, but there was no guarantee Mayfield would transition to the NFL. Mayfield is the latest in a small list of quarterbacks who have flashed potential, despite being 6-1 or shorter. Drew Brees (6 foot) of the New Orleans Saints and Russell Wilson (5-11) of the Seattle Seahawks are other notable examples.
“But Mayfield played in an era of college football known for its reliance on concepts of the spread offense. After the Browns moved on from former head coach Hue Jackson, offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and the new regime dialed up a philosophy that meshed well with Mayfield’s strengths.
“Most notably, Kitchens stressed the need to fire quick passes to limit the sacks and pressure Mayfield faced. A revamped running game helped, but Mayfield’s confidence also grew. He delivered pinpoint throws in stride when needed.
“After years of toiling at the position, the Browns look like they’ve finally drafted a legitimate franchise quarterback. Now all they have to do is put more weapons around him, foster his development and get him to limit turnovers.”
And so it goes with the most celebrated Browns rookie quarterback since Bernie Kosar 33 years ago.
BROWNS RANKED 14TH IN NFL BY USA TODAY
The Browns may have dropped their regular-season finale in Baltimore last Sunday, but the impressive, exciting way they played in a 26-24 loss to the AFC North champion Ravens that went down to the final seconds, won over a lot of people, including USA Today staff writer Nate Davis.
In what he called his “NFL power rankings, post-regular season edition,” he moved the Browns up two spots to 14th in his weekly ratings. Yes, that’s right, 14th. They are not just in the very last spot of the upper half of the 32-team league, as they were last week in being No. 16, but actually a couple two notches into that pack.
But the fact that the Browns are ranked anywhere in the middle of the league just a year after their historically terrible 0-16 record caused them to be rated dead-last by Davis – and everybody else, for that matter — in 2017, is nothing short of jaw-dropping. While improvement for the Browns was expected this season – after all, it could not have been any worse than last year – nobody, but nobody saw a final 7-8-1 mark coming, especially considering that the club was just 2-5-1 at the midway point.
Here’s what Davis wrote about the Browns:
“What if Baker Mayfield had started sooner? What if Hue Jackson had been fired sooner? Regardless, Cleveland’s ‘Factory of Sadness’ has apparently been shuttered.”
Yippeeee!
The Browns are ranked just one spot behind the Pittsburgh Steelers (13th) and two places in back of the defending Super Bowl champion and playoff-bound again Philadelphia Eagles (12th). They are ahead of the Minnesota Vikings (15th), Atlanta Falcons (16th), Tennessee Titans (17th) and Green Bay Packers (18th).
Again, at the start of the year, something like all that was incomprehensible.
The New Orleans, Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams remained 1-2-3, respectively, while the Kansas City Chiefs (fourth) and Ravens (fifth) both improved one place.
The rest of the top 10 includes the Los Angeles Chargers (sixth), New England Patriots (seventh), Indianapolis Colts (eighth), Seattle Seahawks (ninth) and Houston Texans (10th).
The other team ahead of the Browns, in 11th place, is the Dallas Cowboys.
For what it’s worth, the Miami Dolphins take over for the Browns at No. 32 this year. Let the people on South Beach chew on that all winter.
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