Baker Mayfield and the Carolina Panthers are set to face off against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. It’s Week 1 of the NFL season, but the battle between Mayfield and his former team has been going on for months.
Last week, NFL Network’s Cynthia Frelund reported that Mayfield said he was going to f–k up the Browns, but that fire was quickly put out by Mayfield. He’s saying and doing the right things leading up to the Week 1 matchup.
Rob Brown and Lonzo Writesel of Audacy's "Views from Mint Street" podcast discussed how Mayfield is already winning the battle against the Browns' front office and what to expect on Sunday.
“Here’s a major problem. The people who are anti-Baker, they wanted it to be true so they could go ‘See! See! See!’ and then there are people like you, Rob, who wanted it to be true because you wanted to see that fire and you’re disappointed because you wanted him to come out and say ‘Yeah, I said it. And I’m going to back it up come Sunday,’” Writesel said (8:28 in player above).
“But if you watch Baker, and you watch him – including when he said ‘I am not a robot’ – you can see that fire in there,” he continued. “You can see that he’s biding his time and that he’s proven Cleveland wrong with the way he’s handling this until he gets to Sunday so he can get out there and you’re going to see the Baker that you want to see. The fiery Baker. The guy that wants to win at all costs. You’re going to see that guy, but right now it’s him versus the Browns’ front office and Baker’s winning.”
Mayfield was quick to refute the quote last week, which falls in line with how he’s been acting since the trade to Carolina. The Panthers quarterback isn’t giving the Browns anything to work with.
“He absolutely is. He 100% is. He was winning before he got to Charlotte, but since he’s gotten to Charlotte, he has said the right things, he has done the right things,” Brown said. “I was thinking back while you were talking there, Lonzo, trying to think back of what has been the most Baker thing that Baker has said since he showed up in Charlotte. And the only thing that I’ve got is when they asked him ‘Are you looking forward to Week 1?’ and he said ‘I’m not a robot.’ That’s the only thing that he has said that even came across a little bit Baker – that only came a little bit Mayfield across my screen – and even that was relatively tame, right?”
This is by no means anything out of the ordinary for players and coaches with the media.
“You know what he’s doing? He’s using the Bill Belichick approach. That’s absolutely what he’s doing,” Writesel said. “He’s acting bored with the questions. He’s being polite more than what Belichick does, but he’s using that approach like you’re not going to get any fire out of me, and if you don’t you’re going to move on. And that’s exactly what’s happening when it comes to questions about the game.”
While both teams know that there will be some extra juice for an otherwise mild Browns vs. Panthers matchup, neither side is going to any lengths to play that up. They know the situation and they’re letting that speak for itself.
“I think there’s an element of not giving the guys wearing the helmets in Cleveland, – not the front office – the Myles Garretts of the world, not giving them any reason, right,” Brown said. “Because I think some of those guys probably understand a little bit why Baker is upset but he doesn’t necessarily need to or want to give them any more fuego than they already have to come out and get him on Sunday and he’s done a masterful job at not giving away any bulletin board material.
“But I absolutely think you’re going to get big swinging Baker. I think you’re going to get the dude who’s going to come out, be aggressive, have that fire, have that swag, and try to set the field ablaze when the boys from Cleveland are standing across the field from him.”
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