Cleveland Browns: The uncanny parallel between Baker Mayfield and Brett Favre
By Cory Kinnan
A good omen for the future
As Clevelanddotcom’s Doug Lesmerises pointed out, the stats between Mayfield’s second season as a starting quarterback and Favre’s second season in Green Bay are nearly identical. With that being said, then how did Favre end his 1993 season? With a ton of fireworks and a ton of wins on the remainder of the schedule.
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He went on to throw 14 more touchdown passes and 16 interceptions, but more importantly he led the Packers to a final regular-season record of 9-7, winning seven of the final nine games of the season; the Favre-led Packers would go on to win the Wild Card game before losing in the divisional round the following week of the playoffs.
With 11 games left in the 2019 season, the Mayfield-led Browns have the opportunity to mimic Favre once again, as the back half of their schedule remains one of the weakest in the league.
After facing the Seattle Seahawks this week, the Browns will head into their bye week, giving them two weeks to prepare for the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. After facing the Patriots, however, the Browns will still have the winless Cincinnati Bengals twice, the beatdown Pittsburgh Steelers twice, the tanking Miami Dolphins, the one-win Arizona Cardinals, the unproven Buffalo Bills, and the Baltimore Ravens (who they demolished one week ago).
Mayfield is a gunslinger who is going to be given every opportunity to make plays for his team; with that being said, interceptions will always remain in the conversation with him, just as they did with Favre. However, the big-time plays and the stuffed stat sheets will also be there with the strong-willed Mayfield, just as they did with Favre.
It is an absolutely ridiculous claim to make that the Browns should abandon the most decorated rookie quarterback in NFL history because of a slow start to just his second season in the league; imagine if the Packers would have moved on from Favre at this same point in his career?
With the opportunity to win seven of his last nine games, just as Favre did back in 1993, and sneak into the playoffs, the Browns are still in safe hands with Baker Mayfield.