Cleveland Browns: Tyrod supporters must realize its Baker time

Due to an unfortunate injury to Tyrod Taylor, Baker Mayfield got his time to shine last night with the Cleveland Browns. The rookie played lights out on prime-time television, proving its time for him to start.

I was a Tyrod Taylor supporter from day one. When the Cleveland Browns traded for Tyrod, I was ecstatic. He gave the Browns the option to sit the franchise quarterback for his rookie year, allowing the rookie to learn and ease into the NFL.

John Dorsey has had his success in following this process. During his time in Green Bay, the Packers used this model to prepare Aaron Rodgers. Mind you that ahead of him was Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, so Rodgers had no choice but to sit.

More recently, Dorsey drafted Pat Mahomes to sit behind Alex Smith. Neither of these players is on the level of the previous duo mentioned, but still good quarterbacks. Mahomes got one start his rookie year in a meaningless Week 17 game against the Broncos, in which he won. Mahomes has even recently said he’s glad he sat.

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"“I would have just been trying to make plays… I wouldn’t have had the same confidence I have now.” — Mahomes via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk"

Another situation where a quarterback has sat was with Jimmy Garoppolo in New England. Garoppolo had much more time to sit than the other quarterbacks, as he was being arguably the greatest quarterback of all time in Tom Brady, but he has also praised the idea of a quarterback sitting.

"“I think it’s tremendous for a quarterback to sit his first year… You kind of try to put yourself in that situation, how to learn from it, what you would do if you were in the spot they were in. There’s a ton of things that you could benefit from.” — Garoppolo via Dave Skretta, AP"

The Browns were right with their original plan of letting Baker sit. With Dorsey’s success in that process and the Browns lack of success starting rookies off the bat, it had to be done.

Tyrod Taylor is a starting quarterback in the NFL. He’s had a rough start in Cleveland. He’s completed 41 of his 84 attempts as a Cleveland Brown, giving him an abysmal 48.8%. He also only has 462 yards passing so far, which is only 5.5 yards per attempt. His interception percentage is 2.4 percent this season, which is good, but up 1.4 percent from a year ago. Tyrod’s passer rating is also down 25.5 points to 63.7, which is not what you want to see from a starting quarterback.

These past three games he has not been playing like himself. This could be because of the pressure of having Baker Mayfield eagerly waiting behind him. Baker got his opportunity against the Jets to show why the pressure is so heavy on Tyrod, proving he is ready.

Baker came out and rallied the team to overcome a 14 point deficit in one half. Completing 17 of his 23 passes for 201 yards, Mayfield looked amazing. A few of his incompletions were drops too.

The team looked alive when Baker was leading the offensive unit, a look the Browns didn’t have with Tyrod. This is no way a knock on Tyrod’s abilities but it shows how much this team has rallied around Baker.

Baker has proven himself to be ready to take over the franchise sooner than expected and Hue Jackson would be idiotic to not let him. Tyrod’s time as a starting quarterback in Cleveland is over and fans should wish him the best.

This does not mean that Tyrod’s career as a starting quarterback in the NFL is over. There are a few teams that could really use his talent. His former team, the Bills, are certainly missing him. Through two games Tyrod’s replacements in Buffalo have thrown four picks, which was the amount he threw all year last season.

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With all this being said, Baker starting over Tyrod is a testament to Bakers talent. Tyrod has not played himself out of a starting job, despite a few rough games. Baker has played his way into a starting role on the franchise. The GWOAT (Greatest-Walkon-Of-All-Time) was born to turn this franchise around.

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