BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Baker Mayfield was given a much-needed day off Wednesday.
Shoulder, foot and knee injuries have slowed the 2018 No. 1 overall pick in 2021.
“This is probably the most beat up I’ve ever been in my career, and it’s not like it’s one particular thing, it’s multiple,” Mayfield said Wednesday.
“It’s just that time of the year and things add up, a couple of things after another so it is what it is.”
Like Mayfield, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski dismissed the notion of sitting Mayfield against the winless Lions to give him a week to rest and the expectation is that Sunday afternoon No. 6 will be on the field.
“We always with the medical group make sure that whatever we are doing, we are making decisions in the best interest of the player,” Stefanski said. “We will never put a player out there who is not ready, but if he is ready to go, he will play on Sunday.”
Mayfield is coming off his worst performance of the season that saw him complete 11 of 21 passes for 73 yards with a touchdown and an interception in a 45-7 shellacking by the Patriots Sunday in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
His passes were off target, and he did not look comfortable throwing before being forced from the game late in the third quarter but Stefanski plans to play him, battered and bruised both literally and figuratively.
“Baker is a tough as they come,” Stefanski said. “He is sore. He is fighting through it. That is kind of what you expect from him.”
The pain Mayfield is in was noticeable as he walked to and from the podium Wednesday morning.
Mayfield’s latest injury is a right knee contusion.
Add that to the left foot injury, left knee contusion as well as a torn labrum and fracture of the humerus bone in his left shoulder that has him wearing a protective harness.
“It's been tough, but I don't think anybody gives a damn,” Mayfield said. “There's no reason to get into that. Nobody cares or wants to feel bad for us, so it is what it is. It's alright.”
Mayfield isn’t himself, and he’s playing like it too.
“There’s definitely a couple plays where I look back and say I should have used my feet here and there, but you have to adapt,” Mayfield said. “Nobody is going to feel bad for you. It’s not an excuse. You just have to find a way to make a play.”
The Browns are coming off their worst performance of the season and New England, which dropped them to 5-5 and they continue to be one of the most disappointing teams in the league this season.
With seven games to play, there’s not much time to right the ship and fix everything that ails them.
Meetings and speeches won’t do it either according to Mayfield.
“It’s not necessary to have some rah-rah speech,” Mayfield said. “Everybody knows we got our ass kicked. It’s 45-7, it’s pretty blatant, so it is what it is. You’ve got to swallow it, you’ve got to move on, you’ve got to get better, you’ve got to own it as a team because we lost as a team and it’s not on one person. So handle it that way and move forward.”
As for the offense, which has been wildly inconsistent, Mayfield believes they just need to get back to what they do well.
“We don't need to reinvent the wheel,” Mayfield said. “Yeah, changes need to be made, but execution and there's plays to be made that we haven't. That's where we're at right now. It's not where we have to sit down and do everything completely different, we need to be able to execute and put the ball in our playmakers' hands and let them go to work.”
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