Cleveland Browns: Pre-training camp 53-man roster prediction

Quarterback (2): Baker Mayfield, Drew Stanton

For the first time since they returned to the league in 1999, the Cleveland Browns have a quarterback under center who everyone believes in. Drafted first overall out of Oklahoma last season, Baker Mayfield started his rookie campaign on the bench as the coaching staff felt as though Tyrod Taylor gave them the best shot at winning.

It didn’t take long for that to change as Mayfield replaced Taylor in a Week 3 contest on Thursday Night Football. In front of a national audience, No. 6 led the Browns to a comeback victory over the New York Jets — which was their first victory in 635 days.

Mayfield proved then he was a leader and then took his game to another level once head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired. Working with interim offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens, Mayfield played extremely well and ended up breaking the record for the most touchdown passes by a rookie with 27. With Kitchens now taking over as the head coach, there’s no reason to think he won’t continue to progress.

Behind Mayfield this season will be Drew Stanton who was the No. 3 quarterback in 2018. Stanton has been applauded for his work with Mayfield as a mentor and will continue to offer a veteran to lean on.

Cleveland decides that two are enough here as they believe in Stanton to win them games if necessary. They also should have no problem getting undrafted rookie David Blough on the practice squad to groom as an emergency quarterback should they ever need one. It may be tempting to keep Garrett Gilbert, but he has no more practice squad eligibility and they may need the spots elsewhere.