Browns draft: It’s time to search for Baker Mayfield’s future backup

Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.

(One in a series on Browns needs and interests in the NFL draft.)

Position: Quarterback

The Browns were an 0-16 disaster when they made Baker Mayfield the surprise No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 draft.

Three years later, they are ranked by Las Vegas sports books third or fourth in the AFC to make the Super Bowl.

How the Browns got to their highest high since expansion in Mayfield’s three years was a rickety roller-coaster ride of constant coaching, GM and offensive system changes.

Mayfield lit up the city in his first appearance as a rookie, and then struggled so badly in Year 2 that when new coach Kevin Stefanski hand-picked veteran quarterback Case Keenum as the team’s third free agent signing in 2020, immediate speculation was about how soon Keenum would take over as the starter.

By the end of his third season, Mayfield had pocketed the franchise’s first win in Pittsburgh in 18 years and its first playoff win on the road since 1969.

Now, as Mayfield heads closer to a second contract in the vicinity of $35 million+ annually, the job description of the Browns’ backup quarterback may change. The search for a younger, cheaper, developmental quarterback to groom as understudy should begin.

Projected starter: Baker Mayfield.

Also under contract: Case Keenum, Kyle Lauletta.

Analysis

Since he took over as Browns starting QB in Game 4 of 2018, Mayfield is one of only four NFL quarterbacks to start every game for his team – 47 in a row, counting two playoff games. He has been removed only twice for a total of 18 snap counts. Keenum, 33, enters the second season of a three-year deal. He’ll earn $6 million in 2021. When Mayfield’s imminent fifth-year option kicks in for the 2022 season at a cost of $18.8 million, the luxury of having Keenum as backup will expire. He’ll be due a $1 million roster bonus on the third business day of the 2022 season, which figures to be his ticket out of town -- unless the Browns and Keenum agree to a greatly reduced new contract after 2021. If not Keenum, the future backup could be Lauletta, whom GM Andrew Berry signed last year after having him in Philadelphia in 2019, or a developmental quarterback taken in the late rounds of this coming draft.

Day 1 candidates

• Trevor Lawrence, Clemson: He’s the reason Urban Meyer left a comfortable gig as college football analyst to return to the coaching grind in Jacksonville. Considered the first can’t-miss QB prospect since Andrew Luck.
• Justin Fields, Ohio State: Despite a 20-2 record and 67-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio in two sensational seasons at the highest level of college football with the Buckeyes, he has been tabbed as the QB to be picked apart unmercifully in the pre-draft process.
• Zach Wilson, Brigham Young: This year’s out-of-left field franchise prospect, he won attention with uncanny, natural accuracy and Patrick Mahomes-like off-platform releases and improvisational plays against suspect competition.
  
• Trey Lance, North Dakota State: Everything is there physically, but only one season as starter against FCS competition makes him a boom or bust prospect.
• Mac Jones, Alabama: Was his phenomenal one full season for Nick Saban the result of a superlative supporting cast or his own brilliant football IQ and intensely competitive nature?

Day 2 candidates: Davis Mills, Stanford; Kyle Trask, Florida; Kellen Mond, Texas A&M.

Day 3 candidates: Ian Book, Notre Dame; Sam Ehlinger, Texas; Jamie Newman, Georgia; Feleipe Franks, Arkansas.

Previously

Wide receiver

Defensive line

Linebacker

Cornerback