What do you do with the new guy, Baker Mayfield?

By Steve King

Despite what sportsillustrated.com’s Andy Benoit wrote recently – I detailed it here the other day – I still think the Browns are doing exactly the right thing for themselves and Baker Mayfield by not making the rookie quarterback the starter right out of the gate.

Rookie quarterbacks, no matter how good they are and where they were taken in the NFL Draft, aren’t made to be immediate starters. They just aren’t.

The position as it is played in the NFL is just too tough for someone with no pro experience to handle. Just as you wouldn’t make an apprentice carpenter the foreman on the job from Day 1, you can’t stick a rookie under center to be the face of your franchise from Day 1.

That quarterback needs to learn the NFL game, the speed of the game, which is a speed he has never seen, and all the countless nuances that go into doing the job.

Now, could Mayfield so some good things if he played right away? Sure, of course he could. He is so very talented.

But he couldn’t sustain it, and he would end up doing so many bad things that he would play himself right out of the job, so damaging his confidence that he might spook himself right out of every being able to play the position at a championship level.

It is better – it will be better – for Mayfield to stand back and watch and learn from starter Tyrod Taylor and coaches Todd Haley and Hue Jackson. With the three of them, Mayfield will get a good education.

OK, so when will the star pupil get promoted to first string?

That’s hard to say. Not even the Browns coaches know the answer to that one right now. They’ll just play it by here, evaluating the situation each and every day. And at some point, it will become apparent that the time is right for that seismic change on the team to take place.

But that time is not now, or even close to it.

So while other people, like Andy Benoit, who know a lot of football, are entitled to their opinions, we don’t have to agree with them.

And in this case, I don’t.

Not at all.

We’ll see who’s right.

Attention Loyal Fans:  Shirts available here