The Browns face quarterback Baker Mayfield right out of the gates, with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft facing the team that employed him for four years -- before throwing him out for Deshaun Watson.
“Baker obviously is a player that we know well,” coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters on Monday. “He knows us really well, too, in terms of scheme and those type of things. I think our players and our coaches have a real good understanding of his strengths.”
So who has the edge when it comes to the knowledge, the Browns or Baker?
“A lot of times, I think it is overrated in terms of they know that we know that they know and those type of things,” Stefanski said. “He is a really good football player, and we have to get to work and preparing to play him.”
Stefanski said he hasn’t noticed any differences in Mayfield’s mechanics, based on reps in preseason games. However, Stefanski did say that Mayfield appears to be healthy after last year’s shoulder injury.
When it came to a question regarding his farewell to Mayfield, Stefanski clammed up.
“I am not going to get into those things,” the third-year coach said. “I keep conversations between all of our players [in house], we have talked about that.”
The Browns will be talking a lot about Mayfield this week, and Mayfield will surely be talking a lot about them. Come Sunday night, we’ll be talking about whether Mayfield was able to stick it to his former team. Which he surely wants to do, regardless of whether he said so.