The Cleveland Browns have been searching far and wide for a long-term franchise quarterback over the last quarter century. With the 2026 team away for the summer break, here at Dawg Pound Daily we’ve decided this is the perfect time to take a stroll down memory lane in an eight-chapter series called Cleveland's Quest for a Quarterback. This is Chapter 7.
To be clear: this exercise isn’t about dunking on the Browns. It’s about getting to the bottom of the seemingly unsolvable riddle that has plagued Cleveland’s proud fan base for far too long. We’re here to answer the questions: When did the Browns flunk the test? And when did the right decision get overshadowed by the football gods’ unrelenting cruelty?
Even with MVPs Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson available, the Cleveland Browns still found their guy in Baker Mayfield
After enduring a winless 2017 season, the Browns became what is perhaps the closest thing to a successful tanking story in NFL history. Their second consecutive pick of the litter came in the QB-rich 2018 class, affording them whomever of the signal-callers they so desired. Among the contenders: Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, and Lamar Jackson.
We needn't waste your time. Everyone knows the pick was Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield — the physical embodiment of the fuzzy line that demarcates gritty and reckless. Despite what hindsight would tell you, the Browns nailed this pick. It's anyone's guess whether Darnold, Allen, or Jackson would've blossomed as they did if thrust into Cleveland's situation.
One thing we do know, however: Mayfield braved what had broken so many Browns QBs before him, and he didn't crack or crumble. He thrived.
It didn't start without a hitch. NFL coaches don't usually survive 1-15 seasons. Not even a bath in Lake Erie will wash away the stink of following up a 1-15 season with 0-16. Yet, somehow, head coach Hue Jackson kept his job. A man whose teams could not finagle more than a single victory in 32 chances was given the opportunity to mold the franchise's prized addition.
That was Cleveland's first mistake. They'd be sure to compound it in the future, if for nothing else than to put Mayfield's rookie journey on "hard mode."
As a result of a 2-5-1 start to the season with Tyrod Taylor initially atop the depth chart, sanity finally prevailed in Cleveland and Jackson was let go. As fate would have it, the Browns reeled off five wins in their final eight games under interim head coach Gregg Williams (with interim offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens at the play-calling controls) en route to their first respectable record since 2014.
Knowing how the next season played out makes what took place next seem like ineptitude. It's important to note, though, that hiring Kitchens for the head coaching role in 2019 actually made loads of sense. For starters, Kitchens had just seen Mayfield thrive under his tutelage to the tune of a 3,725-yard, 27-touchdown rookie season. By going another direction, they'd risk losing the coach who had shown such promise.
Alas, the football gods' cruelty reared its ugly head again and Kitchens proved out of his depth as a head coach. The Browns' front office also got ahead of itself when it came to roster building. Instead of continuing to add responsibly with the kind of players who spearheaded the turnaround, Cleveland traded for mercurial wideout Odell Beckham Jr., he who may have been the catalyst to the eventual destruction of all that was being built. The Browns regressed to 6-10, and a familiar series unfolded.
The year that stole fans' hearts
Another housecleaning in Cleveland ensued, including the head coach and general manager. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. This time, Cleveland opted for Kevin Stefanski, a hardly-more-accomplished but admittedly more stoic leader, and paired him with general manager Andrew Berry, though the order of the hirings was curious. Stefanski, who in some respects is underneath Berry on the organizational hierarchy, was hired first.
In any case, it worked. Despite the worldwide pandemic that enveloped the planet in 2020, the pande- word that had taken over Cleveland was pandemonium. The Browns were good, maybe even on the road to being great. Stefanski pushed all the right buttons as Mayfield continued his ascent toward becoming one of the league's top QBs, exemplified by a 3,563-yard, 26-touchdown statline that saw him toss just eight interceptions.
Kudos are in order for Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt as well, as the duo rushed for north of 1,900 yards and found paydirt a whopping 18 times on the year. When the dust settled, the Browns were 11-5 and playoff-eligible for the first time since the Couch-Holcomb playoff season of 2002. Their foe in the wild-card round was the all-too-familiar Pittsburgh Steelers, the very same team that ended the 2002 season for Cleveland. Talk about poetry in motion.
This time, 18 years later, things would be different. The Browns pounded their always-favored older brothers to the tune of a 35-10 halftime score. The 48-37 final was propped up by gobs of garbage time points as Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger threw for 501 yards and four TDs, as well as four interceptions. His 68 pass attempts in the game remain a playoff record — as well as the perfect statistic to encapsulate what this contest was: A rout that was never in doubt.
Unfortunately, the Cinderella run had to come to an end sometime, and it did in gut-wrenching fashion against the Kansas City Chiefs one week later. The eventual AFC champions broke Cleveland's collective heart in a close 22-17 divisional round defeat. If this were a fairytale, it would just be the small stumble before the glory that makes everyone feel warm inside. Alas, there's no joy for the Browns, just pain.
Newfound expectations exposed cracks in Cleveland's foundation
They say winning cures all, and it's generally true. While the Browns were winning in 2020, you'd be hard-pressed to find a negative story about Baker Mayfield or Kevin Stefanski. Ditto for prima donna wideouts Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry, the former of whom missed the final nine regular-season games and the subsequent playoff run with a torn ACL. What was bubbling under the surface was far more maddening.
Stefanski had been desperately trying to placate egos all around. There was Mayfield, the franchise quarterback who couldn't fathom being upset with winning a football game. Then there were his top two wideouts — Beckham Jr. and Landry — who could oftentimes be seen moping when they didn't get the ball on a given play. The winning ways of 2020 forced them to keep it together, but when 2021 wasn't nearly as peachy, things fell apart.
The season was mired in rumors that Beckham wanted out of Cleveland. Little was left to the imagination when Beckham's father posted a video on social media of Mayfield missing, or going elsewhere, with the ball when Beckham was apparently open. Eventually, Beckham got his wish. And remember that fuzzy line between gritty and reckless we talked about earlier?
Mayfield endured a beating as he continuously sacrificed his safety and put himself in harm's way. He wound up starting 14 games, many of them while injured, with Case Keenum and Nick Mullens starting the other three. The end result: a disappointing 8-9 record. A resounding thud after what seemed like an emphatic arrival in 2020.
Surely the Browns wouldn't have an irrational, knee-jerk reaction to a down year in which the closest thing to a franchise QB they'd had in decades gritted through injury for his teammates? No franchise that had experienced the euphoria of a playoff victory one year prior would discard the 26-year-old quarterback who got them there, right? RIGHT?
— This series will conclude with Chapter 8 on Sunday, July 26. See Chapter 1, "The Right Pick, the Wrong Plan," here.
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