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Baker Mayfield lifts a team and a city -- Bud Shaw's Spin

Baker Mayfield showed why he was the Browns top QB in the draft and why he will start the rest of the season.
Credit: David Dermer
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) throws a pass during the first half of a game at FirstEnergy Stadium.

CLEVELAND — The moment Browns football became fun again had little to do with unlocked beer fridges — though those didn’t hurt (I’m told) — and so much more to do with Baker Mayfield treating his first NFL game like a day on the sandlot.

The only thing the rookie didn’t do in leading the Browns to a stunning 21-17 win over the Jets (Yes, it was only the Jets but don't be fooled by that) was plant a flag at midfield.

No need. It was already understood by then. It's his field, his team, his franchise.

"You can't deny the talent," Hue Jackson said of Mayfield as the clock struck midnight. "I knew we drafted the right guy. It was going to be about the timing. This is how it turned out."

When the Browns finally won for the first time in...oh, who's counting?... the absolute didn’t-see-this-coming kicker was that Mayfield somehow made it look easy — almost inevitable — once he entered the game in relief of Tyrod Taylor with the Browns trailing 14-0 and a sense of doom settling in like a lakefront fog.

By the end of the night, Mayfield had 17 completions in 23 attempts, 201 yards and a game ball from his head coach. The numbers don't capture the energy Mayfield brought off the bench or the respect the Jets immediately showed after using the first half to declare open season on Tyrod Taylor.

"This is definitley up there for me,'' said Mayfield of the memory he made. "I feel like we're just getting started."

Jackson couldn't commit to Mayfield as his starter after the game out of respect for Taylor. But what Mayfield did left no doubt.

So, too, what Taylor did: 4-14 for 19 yards. One completion in the first quarter for minus-5 yards.

Mayfield walked right in and lifted more than an offense. He lifted a team and a city. He turned the Browns offense into a well-oiled machine, providing Bud Light lubrication in the process for a fan base that must’ve fought the urge to leave at halftime and buy their own.

Mayfield was so polished and good he made certain Browns head coach Hue Jackson couldn’t possibly consider giving the starting job back to Taylor without risking another cold plunge in Lake Erie, this one unscripted and involuntary.

He can’t right?

Even the Big Buddy Boy in the front office will acknowledge that sitting Mayfield is no longer viable, no matter how good his last No. 1 draft pick, Patrick Mahomes, looks in Kansas City after sitting for a year behind Alex Smith.

There would a revolution if the Browns did anything but start Mayfield the rest of the way. And you do not want to rile a citizenry you’ve just armed with beer cylinders. Those things do pack a wallop.

"Maybe people will see that things are changing here," Jackson said, after admitting (obviously) that being the brunt of 1-31 jokes the past two years was tough to take.

One thing is changing for sure. Turns out, Taylor was only the starter for three games but we can say without fear of contradiction that we knew him only too well (even if we were never sure how to pronounce his name.)

It also turns out Taylor made more sense in principle than in practice — a placeholder who might bring stability after two years of chaos and give the Browns young offense under new coordinator Todd Haley a chance to develop an identity.

If that were the case, they could bring Mayfield along at the pace of their choosing. But that wasn’t the case. Not even close.

Not against Pittsburgh in the opener. Only the quasi Hail Mary pass to Antonio Callaway in New Orleans kept the plan from being reconsidered last week. The first half was so bad Thursday, the Browns should’ve considered a change even if Taylor had not departed and been examined for a concussion.

Jackson wouldn't address the hypothetical about whether he would've made a QB change if injury didn't force Taylor from the game. It's moot now.

"That's why he's the first pick, the Heisman Trophy winner," Jarvis Landry said of Mayfield. "We saw it tonight first-hand."

We saw that. And more. We saw the future. And it just might include glasses, or beers, raised high.

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