Cleveland Browns: Is Baker Mayfield a Super Bowl quality quarterback?

The Cleveland Browns have re-loaded their roster but it leaves them with one question — is Baker Mayfield the quarterback to take them to the Super Bowl?

As Cleveland Browns fans, I think that we can all agree that there is a different feeling in the city, organization, and fan base as we near the 2021 NFL Draft. There have not been many years in recent history where the main focus for the draft was not which quarterback would be our next hopeful savior.

While some may argue that Baker Mayfield has not proven himself to be our franchise quarterback, he has done much more to convince the league otherwise, than his twenty-eight predecessors.

Coming off one of Cleveland’s most successful seasons since 1999, it’s hard not to have hope that this is “our quarterback”. In Mayfield’s first three seasons, he has had four head coaches, four offensive coordinators, and three increasingly successful years behind center.

The stats speak for themselves; Baker Mayfield is arguably one of the top quarterbacks from his 2018 draft class, and easily the best quarterback to suit up in a Cleveland Browns uniform in years. Yet it’s easy to question whether or not all of this is too good to be true.

While most can agree that the thoughts of Cleveland signing, trading for, or drafting a quarterback to replace Baker are absolutely absurd, there is still one lingering question; is Baker Mayfield a Super Bowl quality quarterback?

This offseason has brought about a lot of change. Andrew Berry has taken the Browns’ weaknesses on defense, and filled almost every gap that was present. Whether that was resigning  players, picking up free agents, or making key trades.

Most would agree that the defense was what was truly lacking in ability last season, and it was prevalent in games that it needed work. And while the offense was not perfect, it was a completely new schema, that proved to work most of the season. While players continued to get comfortable with Kevin Stefanski’s system, the offense as whole continued to improve.

As of right now, not much has changed on the offensive side of the ball for Stefanski’s Cleveland Browns. Going into the 2021 NFL season it is all on Baker’s shoulders to get the job done behind center. The talent is there, the coaching is there, all that is left is execution and staying healthy.

Time will tell as to whether or not Baker is a Super Bowl quality quarterback, but for now the quarterback hunt is looking to be in the Browns favor for once.