Browns encouraged with Baker Mayfield’s budding leadership skills

After a step back in 2019, Baker Mayfield approached the 2020 offseason the right way, and his team noticed

The Cleveland Browns noticed a change in Baker Mayfield in his offseason activities, whether it be less endorsements, or a larger commitment to taking care of his body. Mayfield’s disappointing 2019 was an unanticipated move in the wrong direction for a player Cleveland had hopes would only be trending upward this early in his football career. But as the Browns can attest, while the Oklahoma product wasn’t the only member of the team to fall back in their 6-10 season, they draft him No. 1 overall so that responsibility could fall on his shoulders.

Mayfield has made those necessary adjustments — or at least the Browns are convinced he has. The quotes coming out of Cleveland’s training camp are encouraging. Of course, they mean nothing until Week 1, and Mayfield would be the first to tell us that.

Baker Mayfield is trimmer than ever, and has a different attitude about the 2020 season

“He came back and added four pounds of lean mass, cut body fat and came back in terrific shape,” Browns GM Andrew Berry said. “I know he’s really excited about the upcoming season, and he’s done a really nice job of what I would call almost creating community and really bringing guys together, as difficult as that can be as everybody has really been trying to function virtually. We’re all really excited about him entering the year.”

That renewed excitement is familiar around Cleveland, as it feels like every half-decade the Browns get a player of Mayfield’s caliber, only for him to crumble under the pressure of saving a football-starved city. But Baker’s constant underdog mentality fits in perfectly with that doubt, and Cleveland’s expectation that what can go wrong, will, is only going to fuel him more.

The NFL is doubting Baker Mayfield. That’s where he thrives the most.