The Cleveland Browns entered the 2019 season as one of the betting favorites to win the Super Bowl. This was a team that added Odell Beckham Jr. to play alongside Jarvis Landry, and Baker Mayfield was coming off a historic rookie season.
Fast forward to October, and the Browns are 2-4 with their next game against the undefeated Patriots.
Defensive struggles aside, Mayfield’s issues have been the most alarming part of the Browns’ rough 2019. The former Heisman Trophy winner has thrown a league-high 11 interceptions through six games to just five touchdowns. He also drew criticism for calling out the refs after he tossed three interceptions in a four-point loss to Seattle.
It’s gotten to the point where NFL bust Ryan Leaf is seeing Mayfield make the same mistakes he did during his NFL career.
Leaf said in an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show:
“When things start to go bad, you put yourself out there in this form. And people can easily attack it. I have a very small sample size: 2-0 to start my NFL career. Talking a lot of smack. And then I walk into Kansas City and put up the worst football game of my existence. And I’ve always been this brash, arrogant kind of guy. That’s the way I came back at everybody instead of just walking up in front of the camera and going, ‘Oh my God. This was my fault. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.’ And hearing Baker yesterday — even though small — blame the officials for some calls is problematic for me because as a quarterback, you want to be able to stand up in front of everybody and take personal accountability.”
To be fair to Baker, he enjoyed far more NFL success than Leaf ever did. Leaf won his first two starts as a rookie before an eight-game stretch with one touchdown and 13 interceptions. Mayfield threw 27 touchdowns as a rookie. So, the on-field comparison wasn’t necessarily valid here, but Leaf would like to see Mayfield take more accountability to fix his mistakes.
And that’s hard to argue with after Sunday’s game.
