Cleveland Browns: Baker Mayfield named as QB on the hot seat

Is Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield on the hot seat?

In three seasons in the NFL, Baker Mayfield has had a lot of highs and lows as the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback. In his first season, he set the NFL record for touchdown passes by a rookie with 27 — which came in just 13 starts.

He followed that up with a frustrating sophomore campaign that saw him throw just 22 touchdowns against 21 picks. The team also went backward as they were 6-10 following a 7-8-1 record in 2018 that included a 5-3 finish.

Now in 2020, he’s again had highs and lows as he entered the bye week with his team owning a 5-3 record but he’s not getting much of the credit for their success. That’s one of the reasons people such as Maurice Moton of Bleacher Report are doubting whether or not he’s the long-term answer in Cleveland.

Moton recently picked five quarterbacks who are on the hot seat and one of those was Mayfield. Moton not only feels as though Mayfield needs to worry about keeping Case Keenum on the bench, but he also thinks he needs to win over this regime — who didn’t happen to select Mayfield No. 1 overall.

"“Keep in mind the current regime didn’t draft Mayfield with the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, which may lead to wandering eyes if a high-level veteran signal-caller hits the open market in 2021.” — Moton, Bleacher Report"

In eight games, Mayfield has completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 1,514 yards with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions. While his numbers are clearly better than a year ago, he’s also thrown for less than 200 yards in five of eight games this season. On top of that, he’s had a turnover in five games which has been a major issue for him.

Overall, we have seen a lot of growth from Mayfield this season and while his numbers looked bad in Week 8, he actually played well against the Las Vegas Raiders. Drops plagued the team and hindered his performance, but had his receivers hauled in the accurate throws he made, he would have been headed into the bye on the heels of two solid games in a row.

Still, Mayfield needs to prove he can continue to do this over the course of an entire season in order to convince everyone he’s the future in Cleveland.

The term ‘Hot seat’ might have been a bit strong, but the fact is, the jury is still out on No. 6. But the good news is, the Browns have time to decide whether or not they want to offer him a second contract.