The Cleveland Browns have made official what we all knew was coming, and Baker Mayfield will be making his first NFL start when the team travels to Oakland to face the Raiders next weekend.
On Monday, Browns head coach Hue Jackson said Mayfield will start in Week 4. However, he stopped short of naming the rookie the starter for the remainder of the 2018 season.
Is Baker Mayfield the starter for this week or for the season? Hue: "He's the starting quarterback of this football team." Lot of things can happen in long season but he's the quarterback.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 24, 2018
Tyrod Taylor left Thursday night’s game against the New York Jets with a concussion, and he did not practice on Monday. He’s expected to be cleared from the concussion protocol in time for Week 3, but he was never going to start after the performance Mayfield turned in while leading the Browns to a come-from-behind win.
Mayfield completed 17-of-23 passes for 201 yards vs. the Jets. He didn’t have a touchdown pass, but he also did not throw an interception and finished with a passer rating of 100.1, leading the Browns to a 21-17 win after they trailed 14-0 in the first half. If you want to know how impressive his performance was, just look at the way he fared against other rookie QBs making their debut in the past decade. The job is now Mayfield’s to lose.
