Cleveland Browns: Ben McAdoo, terrible QB evaluator, doesn’t like Mayfield
By Randy Gurzi
For some reason people are listening when Ben McAdoo talks about quarterbacks and his comments about them, including Cleveland Browns Baker Mayfield, show why he’s unemployed
A former head coach with the New York Giants, Ben McAdoo is credited as a quarterback guru, so people are still listening when he talks about players at the position. Recently he took aim at Baker Mayfield of the Cleveland Browns, but his comments should be laughed off.
First off, McAdoo is no quarterback guru. The problem is he earned that reputation and since it’s the perception, it’s going to stick even when he proves it wrong. And in 2017, he proved it dead wrong.
In his second season coaching the Giants he ended one of the longest starting streaks in the NFL as he sat Eli Manning for Geno Smith.
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Yes, that Geno Smith who was a bust second-round pick of the New York Jets. He did this even though they had a third-round pick rookie in Davis Webb, who some believe could be a starter one day.
Thanks to McAdoo’s blunder, the team entered the offseason with no clue about Webb and the second overall pick. So in other words, his benching of Manning did nothing but hurt the two-time Super Bowl quarterback’s legacy.
So common sense says any guy who think Geno is better than Eli should be ignored. That didn’t happen though as Paul Schwartz of the New York Post spent some time with McAdoo who said he didn’t like any of the rookie quarterbacks except Josh Allen — you know, the one with all the questions.
He even said Mayfield was an odd pick for the Browns:
"“He’s got an edge to him, I like that. He’s gonna lead, they’re gonna follow him,’’ McAdoo said of Mayfield via Schwartz of the NY Post. “I didn’t see a lot of pro-style football in his college tape. And if you’re short you have to be able to make up for it some way, somehow, and personality doesn’t do that.” I didn’t think he was a great athlete. This guy is kinda like a pocket quarterback that is short and with small hands, that’s what I worry about.’’"
McAdoo had Mayfield as his sixth-best quarterback behind people like Sam Darnold — although he didn’t like how he threw — and Lamar Jackson.
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Considering how McAdoo handled the quarterbacks when he was the main shot-caller in New York, this may be one of the best endorsements Mayfield and the Browns could have ever received.