Browns score 42 Points, media blames Baker Mayfield for loss

Colin Cowherd blames the Browns 47-42 loss on babysitting Baker Mayfield

Baker Mayfield and an over-emphasis on offense resulted in the Cleveland Browns losing by the score of 47-42, according to the opinion of veteran Mayfield basher The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports. The new theory is that the Browns are not a Super Bowl team and Baker Mayfield is not really a very good quarterback because the Browns have invested in so many expensive players around Mayfield that he looks better than he actually is. Hence it’s Mayfield’s fault that the Ravens scored 47 points, because the defense has been significantly neglected.

Poppycock, sir! Football is played with 11 players on offense. It behooves the general manager to get good ones. The theory that it’s bad to have too many good players is ludicrous, but you deserve style points for originality at least. Now, if the salary cap is overspent, that is another matter. But it’s not. The Browns have total cap liabilities this season of $198.2 million versus a cap allowance of $198.2 million meaning they are exactly on target this season. Their carryover dollars, $30.5 million, is the highest in the league. They are not overspent.

Last season, in fact, the team was overspent by some $24.5 million, as John Dorsey signed several free agents that he should not have signed, while also trading away draft picks. This year they trimmed that $24.5 million excess and get blasted for spending too much. That’s great, Mr. Cowherd.

Cowherd gives no credit to the Baltimore Ravens and their brilliant quarterback Lamar Jackson, whom I have repeatedly identified as the top dual-threat quarterback in NFL history. He gets paid to score points, and sometimes he succeeds at his job. After battling Covid and other injuries, they are getting healthy again and they are re-establishing their ability to run the ball. It’s not like it is so easy to stop Jackson, Gus Edwards, Mark Andrews, J.K. Dobbins, Patrick Ricard and other stars on that team.

The Ravens have had a similar offensive philosophy to the Browns with Pro Bowler caliber players on a deep offensive line with multiple tight ends and four-deep running backs. That’s common sense, not a Cleveland extravagance. Their wide receiver corps is not as deep this season, so sportswriters are falsely concluding that Lamar Jackson cannot throw outside.

Perhaps the weakest part of Cowherd’s argument is he recently listed nine teams that might win the Super Bowl: Buffalo, Kansas City, the Rams, Seahawks, Saints, Packers, Browns, Bucs, and Steelers. Of the nine, the Browns are not nearly the last on the list in defensive investment this season.

Green Bay, Tampa Bay, and Seattle are within $5 million dollars of the Browns defensive budget, and the Rams and Saints are both more than $10 million below the Browns defensive budget. One is left to wonder if Tampa Bay and Seattle are guilty of “babysitting” Tom Brady and Russell Wilson in Cowherd’s mind, by the criteria he has set up.

2020 Defensive Spending ($million)

Buffalo Bills                     $106.6

Kansas City Chiefs           $97.6

Pittsburgh Steelers         $97.1

Green Bay Packers          $83.2

Tampa Bay Buccaneers  $82.1

Seattle Seahawks            $80.1

Cleveland Browns            $78.6

Los Angeles Rams           $67.7

New Orleans Saints        $66.7

By the way, did Cowherd just call Denzel Ward an “average talent guy?” Yes, he was injured for the Baltimore game, but he did go to a Pro Bowl. Maybe he’s not that terrible. Likewise, are we going to blame Sione Takitaki for getting Covid? Why do we cut Baltimore slack and adjust the schedule for them for Covid, while blaming Cleveland’s quarterback when defensive players are out with Covid?

Cowherd ridicules the Browns for supposedly spending more money on the backup quarterback than on the back seven, but that is simply not true. Obviously, not everyone on the back seven can make more than $6 million per year, but Ward has a higher annual take-home. In terms of 2020 cap hit, Terrance Mitchell and Kevin Johnson also earn more than Case Keenum.

For that matter, Case Keenum has been a starter in the NFL and deserves every penny he gets.  Having a great second-string quarterback is a sound policy. Were the Eagles stupid to sign Nick Foles to a big backup contract in 2017 when he won the Super Bowl for them?

The Browns have had two second round picks at defensive back (Grant Delpit and Greedy Williams) go on IR and miss the entire season, but prior to the season, no one thought the defensive backfield was a weakness of the team. But it doesn’t matter. It’s all Baker’s fault, as Cowherd has clearly explained.

Cowherd also claims that Odell Beckham Jr. doesn’t want to be in Cleveland. Is there any real evidence that Beckham does not want to be in Cleveland? He has done nothing but embrace the city of Cleveland, the LSU Northern Campus with his former teammate Jarvis Landry; he has been a good teammate and done everything asked of him to the best of his ability and Baker Mayfield loves the guy. His flamboyant style turns off some people — which is their right, too — but he has never done anything that is anti-Browns or anti-Mayfield, except for “secret unnamed source” reports, which is probably made up by bored sportswriters. We cannot take this secret source business seriously, when it goes against everything that we see in front of us.

Cowherd is 180 degrees out of phase. A common mistake is that made by the Bengals this season, in which the team drafts a young superstar like Joe Burrow and throws him on the field without enough support (“investment”) around him, gets him sacked 50 or 60 times a season and eventually he winds up injured. This process was patented by the Browns with Tim Couch. No, the team owes it to themselves to build a solid offensive line and running game first. Keep the quarterback upright. It may take two or three years to put up decent passing numbers. Of course, the team invests in offense first.

He thinks the team is going nowhere or getting worse after the enormous progress made by Freddie Kitchens and John Dorsey last season, going 6-10 and overspending the cap allowance by $24.5 million dollars last year, by Spotrac‘s estimate. Baker’s bad play got them fired.

The rest of us watched Andrew Berry trim back almost 100 percent of Dorsey’s overspending in one year to get back under the cap allowance, while still signing Myles Garrett to a long term extension. We have watched the team go 9-4. Isn’t that better than Freddie Kitchens’ 6-10 or Hue Jackson’s 3-36-1?

By the way, Mr. Cowherd, is Myles Garrett an average talent guy too? If the Browns are too cheap to pay defensive players, what’s the fundamental difference between the front four and back seven? Don’t they play on the same defense? Why doesn’t Myles Garrett constitute an investment in defense?

Usually when crossing swords with Mr. Cowherd I recommend that fans tune in to his show because everyone talks about it. This time it is more difficult than usual because the anti-Baker logic is more contorted and strained than normal.

Let’s put it this way, it would be very interesting to see Andrew Berry use this argument during contract negotiations with Baker and his agent, Tom Mills.  “Ah,  yes, Mr. Mills, our defense sucks, it is costing us money and we believe it is your client’s fault, so we’re going to just deduct that from the multi-year package…”