Baker Mayfield is going to be an issue

The Cleveland Browns will be hiring a new head coach to replace Freddie Kitchens, but will third-year quarterback Baker Mayfield continue to be an issue?

The Cleveland Browns massively underperformed this year. They had lofty expectations of reaching the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. Instead, they went 6-10 and fired their first-year head coach Freddie Kitchens. All the while, starting quarterback Baker Mayfield continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. Will he continue to be an issue in 2020?

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, believe that Mayfield has to stop the nonsense at once if he wants to succeed as an NFL passer. He needs a head coach to put him in his place to get the most out of his playing abilities (14:54).

Verderame and Schwartz are tired of seeing Mayfield throw picks and then star in a commercial. This is an offseason where he has to get it or he may never get it at all. It will also help if the Browns hire a head coach who won’t be his buddy like many thought Kitchens was at the start of the year. Not necessarily a disciplinarian, but not an enabler and someone who will challenge him.

Verderame thinks a guy like former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy would be an ideal fit in Cleveland. McCarthy was briefly considered for the job last offseason, but was not a finalist for the gig, as the Browns chose Kitchens over Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski.

With owner Jimmy Haslam stating that he will only look at coaches with NFL coaching experience, you can kiss the idea of former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer coming to Cleveland goodbye, as well as bringing in Mayfield’s former college coach in Lincoln Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners.

At the end of the day, this is an offseason where Mayfield and the entire Browns organization needs to grow up. They have a ton of talent on the gridiron but need to learn how to stop beating themselves before they really learn how to win consistently. Growth in Mayfield will be growth for this entire team and organization.

Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• John Dorsey out with the Browns (8:08)
• Verderame sounds off on Josh McDaniels (12:11)
• Saints-Vikings rife with storylines (20:10)
• Best of this weekend (58:07)

All this and more!

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