BEREA, Ohio — There's a familiar name floating around the walls of Berea this week. There are plenty of questions being asked about the Week 2 matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and as it was this summer, the main topic is the quarterback. These questions, though, are centered around a former face of the Browns' franchise—Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield is locked in with the Buccaneers, now in his fourth season with the team. Coming off last week's three-year, $165 million contract extension, he's found himself a new home.
But he once called Cleveland home. That's not lost on him, or the few people still here from the time Mayfield wore orange and brown. The connection between Mayfield and the Browns remains and will take shape on the field on Sunday.
Browns Head Coach Todd Monken shared one of those connections. Monken was the Browns' offensive coordinator in 2019, Mayfield's second year in the league. Monken had high praise for the kind of player and person Mayfield is.
"He's highly intelligent. You could just get the beginning of a call out of your mouth and he's already got it down. He wants the game plan early so he can look at it at home, so he comes in the building prepared. On the field, he's just highly, highly competitive and he holds himself to a high standard and he holds others to a high standard, which is everything you're looking for in a player...just in a human being in general," Monken said.
Speaking to reporters in Tampa on Wednesday, Mayfield was asked about his connection to Monken specifically.
"Yeah, obviously my year with Todd wasn't the best year for the Browns in 2019. We were kind of all over the place. But Todd's obviously an aggressive play caller; he wants to spread the ball out, that's just his history and background. But yeah, obviously known him for years and so we'll see what happens. But for me, it's going up against the defense; it's going up against Rudy and those guys on that side of the ball," Mayfield said.
Mayfield has always been competitive.
As he said in his first season with Tampa Bay back in 2023, "I will always have a chip on my shoulder. That is how I approach every day." That was his mentality during his four years with the Browns, and it is no different eight years after he was originally selected by Cleveland with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Monken is keenly aware of how hard Mayfield will want to win on Sunday, but said it's no different than Mayfield's approach to every game.
"He's so competitive. He wants to beat everybody he plays. This just happens to be one where I'm sure there's a little bit there, but ultimately he always wants to play well," Monken said. "I've never been around him where he didn't want to compete and fight like hell to win. So this just happens to be one other piece of it."
Mayfield was asked about having this game circled on his calendar and the history between him and the Browns.
"I think anytime, as I've mentioned to you guys, there's history between a franchise, a coaching staff, anybody; there's always, you want to come out on the winning side of that no matter what. But yeah, I spent four years there. I'm going into year four here, so I started my career there. A lot of ups and downs. But yeah, for me, this week is doing the little things right, continuing to try and just place the ball where it needs to go," Mayfield said.
Mayfield's time with the Browns ended tumultuously. After exercising Mayfield's fifth-year option before the 2021 season, a season that saw Mayfield struggle as he played through a partially torn labrum, the Browns had been exploring options at quarterback. That exploration took them to Houston, where they entered the conversation in the Deshaun Watson trade market. After Browns brass met with Watson and considered him as an option, Watson had ruled the Browns out of his running. But the damage was done, and Mayfield, jaded by the Browns' actions, requested a trade.
At first, the team did not intend to honor the trade request, but after reentering the running for Watson with a historical trade offer, the Browns dealt Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers for a 2024 conditional fifth-round draft pick. To acquire Watson and a 2024 fifth-round pick, the Browns sent a 2022 first-round pick, 2023 first-round pick, 2024 first-round pick, 2023 third-round pick and 2024 fourth-round pick to Houston, in addition to giving Watson a record-breaking fully guaranteed 5-year, $230 million contract.
Since then, things have not gone well for Cleveland. Watson has served an 11-game suspension for numerous allegations of sexual misconduct that the league determined violated the personal conduct policy, which were ongoing when the Browns acquired him. He played in just six games in 2023 after sustaining a shoulder injury, just seven games in 2024 after tearing his Achilles and missed the entire 2025 season after tearing the same Achilles a second time during his recovery.
The Browns made it to the playoffs in 2023 after Watson's injury when Joe Flacco came in at quarterback and helped lead them to the AFC Wild Card game against the Texans, which they lost. But the past two seasons have seen the Browns win just three games in 2024 and five games last year.
Considering that how the trade went down will always tie the two together, Watson was asked about Mayfield on Wednesday. He said the question was more geared toward the defense, but he did show respect for him.
"Honestly, I think that's a defensive player question. My main focus is trying to figure out what their defense is doing so we can find ways to be successful and get points. So as far as that, I respect Baker and everything he did ever since college. We've been playing against each other since college. So he's a hell of a player, hell of a quarterback, and they paid him for a reason," Watson said.
The Browns enter Sunday's game against their former quarterback, with Monken as their head coach and a roster that still has two players from Mayfield's time—Denzel Ward and Grant Delpit. Ward spoke on their connection ahead of Sunday's game, with a little competitive edge.
"Baker's an old friend of mine, a good friend of mine. And yeah, definitely any interception any week is always good, but definitely would enjoy getting one off of him this week. But the main goal is to go in and win, but to get an interception is going to help us win. So hopefully I can go out there and help this team do that," Ward said.
Now, Mayfield also recalled memories he's fond of from his time in Cleveland, which were highlighted by the unforgettable moment the Browns made the playoffs for the first time since 2002 and won their first playoff game in a 26-year drought.
"With any experience, there's ups and downs, good and bad. Ultimately, you remember the good more so than the bad...first time having a playoff win since '94 there, and going on the road and doing it in Pittsburgh. So it's a lot of good memories there. A lot of teammates that are friends for life. But like I said earlier, it's a very different building now," Mayfield said.
But those warm, fuzzy memories are sure to be the last thing on his mind when the Browns and Buccaneers hit the field inside Raymond James Stadium on Sunday for the highly anticipated Week 2 matchup.
"I'm sure it still motivates him. Baker is a guy that feeds off of motivation, a lot of things, and I know he's competitive and any game he's going to want to come in and do his best. But I'm sure he's definitely motivated for the game," Ward said.
