Baker Time In Cleveland?

It's been a long time coming for the Cleveland Browns and their fans. Twenty games and 634 days is a long time to wait between victories. December 24th 2016 was the last time the Browns tasted victory, a 20-17 win over the then San Diego Chargers. Now that pain and suffering has ended thanks to their 21-17 win over the Jets on Thursday night, The man responsible for that was first overall pick in this years draft, Baker Mayfield.

He proved on Thursday that he can lead this Browns team. Now the question is, is this really Baker's time?

Browns coach Hue Jackson hasn't made the announcement yet as to who's going to start week four against the Oakland Raiders. it would be pretty stupid on Jackson's part not to go back to Mayfield after the performance he had against the Jets. Mayfield went 17 of 23 for 201 yards. He didn't throw a touchdown or interception on the day either. Not tossing a TD was a bit of a downer, but not throwing a pick was great. He showed a lot of poise and maturity for a guy in his position. His first drive after taking over for Tyrod Taylor with 1:42 left in the first half was pretty impressive, marching the team down the field to set up the field goal that got them on the board.

Tyrod was taken out of the game after dealing with apparent back issues and a concussion, his 3rd in about 13 months or so. But there's more to it then that. Cleveland was calling for Baker well before he got into the game. The Browns offense was going nowhere fast and they needed a spark to get them going. It may have taken an injury to Taylor to give him the chance, but he was able to take his shot and run with it.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. Mayfield did what he did against the Jets without working with the first team offense before Thursday.

You can call it a struck a luck or you can it pure skills. Whatever you call it, you have to tip your hat and admit how impressive of a display it was. now the question remains, who are the Browns going to start against the Raiders next weekend? Smart money should be on Baker. Look Tyrod did what he could with this offense, and give credit where iot's due they looked alright over the first two games of the season. Should have had at least one win already if it wasn't for their crappy kicking game. The fans were calling for the change to be made at quarterback even before Tyrod got hurt, which should have been an indication to Hue right there that something had to change. Had the Browns not made the switch, who knows, they still maybe searching for the first win in over 635 days.

They've got that first win under their belt, and their now actually higher in the standings then the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is a sentence I never thought I'd actually write. It makes perfect sense to keep Mayfield under center. Cleveland has had a revolving door of quarterbacks since the franchise came back into the league in 1999. Thirty one in total since 1999. Cleveland hasn't had one guy under center for an entire season since Tim Couch in 2001. They may have finally found their guy in Baker Mayfield. Now let him take the reigns and run full blast with this team. You know you got a capable backup in Tyrod Taylor should he stumble, but the only way he's going to get comfortable with this team is if he gets his snaps in. Now's the time. This is Baker's team, this is Bakers time!