Cowherd bashes Baker Mayfield after brutal Cleveland Browns loss

Colin Cowherd loves bashing Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield

Fox Sports Colin Cowherd of The Herd and Fox Sports relishes bashing Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns and he is not holding back. Now he claims that Mayfield is holding the Browns back.

Oh, Mr. Cowherd, where to begin? First of all, we do enjoy your show or it would not be worth responding to all this Baker bashing. But it’s way too easy to just bash the quarterback and call for an end to his career every time there is a bad loss. The truth is, the Steelers won on the strength of an excellent all-around team effort.

The Steelers are 5-0, and maybe they have that record for a reason. They beat four other teams that did not have Baker Mayfield as the quarterback. So it’s not like Baker Mayfield is the only reason that a team could lose to Pittsburgh.

Cleveland lost as a team, and changing the quarterback would not make nearly enough difference to change the outcome.

Las Vegas gamblers say that a great quarterback is worth about six points in a football game. The Browns lost this one by 31 points. You don’t fix 31 points by firing the quarterback.

It’s not like the Browns were brilliant in every phase of football except quarterback play.  Quite the opposite. Kareem Hunt was shut down, the receivers were all covered, and the defense could not keep the game close.

Can we have the humility to admit that the Pittsburgh Steelers might be a good football team? Maybe even better than Cowherd’s New York Jets and their superstar quarterback, Sam Darnold.

It was not the case that a quarterback change would have allowed the Browns to overcome the Steelers. Does anyone truly feel that Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady would have gotten a “W” for the Browns in Mayfield’s place, given the differences between the two teams?

Stepping back, let us not forget that three years ago, the Browns were 0-17. They were 6-10 last year. This year they are 4-2.  A normal person (i.e., not Colin Cowherd) would say, “Gee, the Browns are improving, good for them.” Cleveland’s ownership has got the right ownership in place with Dee Haslam assuming a more direct role at the top. Andrew Berry is the right general manager and Kevin Stefanski is the right coach. They have talent on this team. It’s moving in the right direction.

This team is much better, but not as good as either the Baltimore Ravens or Pittsburgh Steelers right now. The entire team, including Baker Mayfield, needs to improve if the Browns are to compete with these two powerhouse teams. The question is not really how good the team is right now, but whether Mayfield and the team can continue to improve.

Cleveland gets to play both the Steelers and the Ravens again later in the season, and we will see if any additional progress is being made.