Cleveland Browns: Carson Wentz nosedive necessitates caution with Baker Mayfield’s future

A major decision looms for the Browns

Still, it’s painfully obvious that Kevin Stefanski does not trust Mayfield as much as he needs to. And you can’t blame the rookie head coach; if Mayfield cannot make open throws and consistently has close calls with near-interceptions, how can he be trusted?

The Browns are in position to make the playoffs for the first time since 2002. But it’s just as, if not more important for the team to evaluate Mayfield. He’s still got training wheels on entering Week 12, and that’s a problem. It’s also somewhat understandable based on the coaching he’s received in the NFL up to this season.

Cleveland has a very difficult challenge of balancing winning right now with making decisions for the future. The goal was not to go through 1-31 to end up as a wild card playoff team with an average (and volatile) QB. Is that Mayfield? We simply don’t know yet. This team has one won game this season because of Mayfield’s ability, and that was the Cincy game. It’s also one of perhaps two or three great games he’s had since his rookie year. The Browns need to let Mayfield play if they’re going to get enough data to make a decision, and they’ve got six games left to do that.

Has Mayfield earned his option yet? No. That will be a very expensive decision; at least $25 million fully guaranteed in 2022, and likely significantly more. That’s just far too much for the level of play Mayfield has given this team over the past two seasons. We’ve all seen Mayfield at his highs, and that player is a top-10 passer in this league. The problem is we’ve seen that player far too infrequently. Mayfield has yet to prove he can make the simple easy throws on a routine basis, and you can’t devote a ton of money to someone like that.