Let’s start with the starter, Tyrod Taylor

By Steve King

We all tuned in to Thursday night’s preseason opener with the New York Giants to see Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield.

After all, he deserves to be seen since he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.



But first and foremost, I tuned in to see quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

For while Mayfield is the quarterback of the future and will play … well, sometime in the future, whenever that turns out to be, Taylor is the quarterback of the here and now. He is the starter, undisputedly so, and the Browns can’t get to where they want to go in the future if they don’t start having some success – most notably at quarterback, which is the most important position in team sports — in the here and now.

And the here-and-now quarterback had a lot of success in the Browns’ 20-10 win, which is their fifth in a row in the preseason dating back to the 2017 opener. Taylor was a perfect 5-for-5 passing for 99 yards and a touchdown. He was darn-near perfect in every way, shape and form.

OK, I know, I know, it’s just the first preseason game. And the Cleveland starters played only two series. Had it not been so hot and humid at MetLife Stadium, they would have barely worked up a sweat. So it’s hardly a guarantee that what we saw of Taylor was a sign of things to come.

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But even with that small sample, would could be discerned – clearly so – was that Taylor gave the Browns what they didn’t have all last year, and that is a quarterback has a sense of where to go with the ball, gets rid of it quickly and delivers it to exactly where it needs to be. No mistakes, no fooling around and – most importantly — nor turnovers.

That kind of effort just might be enough to entice free-agent wide receiver Dez Bryant to give the Browns serious consideration when he visits the team soon.