You don’t really need to be a hardcore Cleveland Browns fan to have some awareness of the problem that has plagued this team for the last, say, three decades or so. The Browns have no quarterback. Not just now, here in 2026, and not just last season, either. But historically, this is a franchise that runs through quarterbacks like a smoker runs through matches on a windy day. Although, it should be said: The Browns did have Baker Mayfield.
OK, we all know what happened from there. Mayfield showed promise but was admittedly immature. The franchise was not particularly patient and that combination of realities meant that his relationship with the team deteriorated, quickly.
He was unceremoniously dumped, bounced between the Panthers and Rams before landing in Tampa, grew up along the way, and re-emerged as a star quarterback for the Buccaneers. The Browns, meanwhile, traded for and signed Deshaun Watson to fully guaranteed mega-deal, worth $230 million, and … well, again, you know this part. Watson can’t stay healthy and when he does, he hasn’t been very good.
Browns at Tampa Bay in Week 2
Now, if you’re Mayfield, you don’t really care about that second part. You just care that this is the team that did not nurture you through yours early ups and downs and instead gave you the boot. And in a matter of months, Baker Mayfield is going up against the Browns in Week 2 of the NFL season, as Cleveland heads to Tampa in a game that got little hype from the league–it’s a run-of-the-mill Sunday afternoon-er.
It won’t be run-of-the-mill for Mayfield, though. In looking at the schedule that was released on Thursday, the Bucs game was first on the mind of the folks at Cleveland.com, which featured an article with the headline, “The Browns’ 2026 schedule features some spicy grudge matches.”
“Baker Mayfield will have no trouble whatsoever getting his game face on for this game against the Browns coming to town,” longtime Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot said. “All he has to tell himself they cast me aside for Deshaun Watson and look how it went. ‘How do you like me now, Cleveland?’”
Baker Mayfield Has ‘Kept Receipts’
As ESPN insider Adam Schefter noted on his self-titled podcast, this one is going to eb about validation for Mayfield, who is much more Zen now that he is older, but still not so Zen that won’t relish going at the Browns.
Talking about Mayfield and the Buccaneers, Schefter went right to the Browns game.
He said: “Their home opener is against the Cleveland Browns in Week 2. How much do you think that games is going to matter to one Baker Mayfield, the former quarterback who the Browns made the No. 1 overall pick at one point in time?
“We know how much Baker has kept receipts. We know that he’s aware of them—all the people and all the teams that have written him off. The first NFL team to write him off was the Cleveland Browns, and the first NFL team that Baker Mayfield and the Bucs play at home in Week 2 is the Cleveland Browns. Buckle your seatbelt.”
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