Report suggests disconnect between Baker Mayfield, Kevin Stefanski

Kevin Stefanski has been adamant that injuries haven’t held Baker Mayfield back this year, but is there dissention in the ranks?

According to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, there’s been a disconnect this season between Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield and his head coach, Kevin Stefanski when it comes to play calling.

Cabot went on to mention that the Browns have seemingly not played up to Mayfield’s strengths this year, despite the fact he’s been banged up since Week 2.

“There’s a feeling that the Browns haven’t played to Mayfield’s strengths this season, but that’s also been hard because he’s been so banged up,” Cabot said.

This would go along with what Mayfield told Kurt Warner in an interview for NFL.com, that the “tricky” part of this season has been the internal noise.

"“It comes down to trying to find an even balance of listening to those opinions around you that truly matter, friends, family, teammates, and that’s been the tricky part about this year, has been a lot of internal things,” Mayfield said. “It hasn’t just been the outside noise. I have to be myself and try and do my job 100%. The guys that truly know me understand that. We need to take care of business in the building, and I need to be myself for these guys.”"

Are Stefanski and Mayfield on the same page? That is something only the two of them can answer, but there is a case to be made that the two aren’t.

Is it the injuries that is holding Stefanski’s play calling, sort of hostage? Is there a lack of trust from Stefanski to Mayfield?

After Sunday’s 24-22 victory over the Ravens to keep the season alive, Mayfield said the team got conservative and the game should have been put away.

"“We did enough to win the game, so check that box off, but got conservative,” Mayfield said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “I think we need to put that team away. We got ahead early, just need to capitalize when the defense is playing like that and holding them to points. We need to put it away. That’s what good teams do, so we need to improve on that.”"

Was that an indirect shot at Stefanski? More than likely, as the Browns shouldn’t have allowed the Ravens to be right in the game in the waning moments, especially without the services of Lamar Jackson.

Winning solves everything, but this might have more than meets the eye. This surely doesn’t seem like it’s something that will blow over anytime soon, but it is something that could blow up in a bad way moving forward.