Cleveland Browns: Baker Mayfield will become a legend with Wild Card win

Baker Mayfield has a chance to become Cleveland Browns legend Sunday

The Cleveland Browns will face off with their  AFC North rival Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night in the Wild Card round of the NFL Playoffs. This being their first playoff appearance in 19 years, it’s a monumental moment for this franchise.

Just making the playoffs, however, isn’t what this team wants to achieve. They want to win. To do that, however, they have some hurdles to overcome.

For one, the Cleveland Browns are in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak within their organization, and are currently without seven players and their head coach Kevin Stefanski. Stefanski and these players will be unavailable for the game against the Steelers.

Secondly, because of this outbreak, the team has shut down their facility and had to practice virtually all week. Being without your head coach and play-caller is a big enough loss to overcome, but having to do that without practicing in person as a team is an even larger hurdle to jump.

That is exactly why a win this Sunday night will make Baker Mayfield a Cleveland Browns legend. Mayfield has made a large step forward this season, both in maturity and playing level, thanks in large part to great scheming by his head coach and his willingness to play within the new system. As the year has gone on, Mayfield and the rest of the Browns offense has improved at an exponential rate.

Should Mayfield prove he can do that against a tough Steelers defense, without his normal play-caller, in a week where the league seems to care very little about competitive disadvantages for the Browns, he not only deserves a spot on the list of legendary Browns quarterbacks, but Browns players altogether.

Kevin Stefanski has prepared Baker Mayfield for this moment all year, and now it’s time for Mayfield to show he can take the reigns of this franchise, while also shutting up those who doubt him as the long-term franchise quarterback.