The former top pick returns to haunt the franchise that discarded him, as the Cleveland Browns disastrous Deshaun Watson gamble faces a crucial inflection point. Can Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers officially end this saga?
Nothing sells in football quite like a revenge story.
There was a pretty notable one involving the best heel in College Football on Saturday night between Ole Miss and LSU, with LSU making his highly anticipated return to Oxford to face the team he spurned before last season's playoff.
Sunday's revenge story probably won't capture national attention the same way Kiffin does. But when Baker Mayfield takes the field against the Cleveland Browns at 1 pm on Sunday, you'll want your popcorn ready whether or not you're a fan of either of the two teams involved.
Mayfield was famously drafted by the Browns No. 1 overall in 2018. Spent four years with the franchise and delivered some of the organization's most memorable moments of the last 25 years. Then, in 2022, he was infamously traded to the Carolina Panthers after a rough, injury-riddled season, as the Browns pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Houston Texans to land embattled quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Those two decisions have become the most pivotal inflection point in the franchise's history since it was reinstated in 1999. In the four years since, the Watson trade can best be described as an utter disaster.
Plagued by a seemingly endless string of injuries, Watson has played in just 20 games, while completing just 61.8% of his passes, for 3,570 yards, 20 TDs, and 13 interceptions. The numbers are one thing. The fact that he's seemingly lost the ability to throw with anticipation and has lost all confidence while playing the position is another, and perhaps the most egregious part of it all.
Meanwhile, Mayfield has gone on to have a respectable career, landing on his feet in Tampa following a tumultuous 2022 that saw him bounce between the Panthers and the Rams. His two best statistical seasons as a pro came in 2023 and 2024, posting new career highs in yardage and touchdowns in back-to-back seasons.
For comparison purposes, Mayfield has racked up 12,453 yards, 95 touchdowns and 37 interceptions in his four years in Tampa. He's also done something Watson has never even flirted with in Cleveland, led the Bucs on two postseason trips. All of that helped him secure a second contract extension with the franchise just before the season kicked off.
There have been some stretches where Mayfield has looked like an MVP candidate, and others where he's looked like the guy Cleveland didn't want to commit $30-40 million to in the form of an extension back in 2022. And yet, with how regrettable the Watson trade has turned out to be for the Browns, a top-15 quarterback doesn't sound so bad right now.
That brings us to Sunday, where Mayfield will duel his former team and Watson – the QB they chose over him – for the first time since all the drama that unfolded four years ago. If you ask those who spent time with Mayfield in Cleveland what they remember most about him, they immediately mention his competitive spirit. Denzel Ward mentioned it. Grant Delpt mentioned it. Head coach Todd Monken, who spent a year as Mayfield's OC in 2019 mentioned it multiple times.
It's why – despite the fact that the Heisman winner tried to frame this one as just another game during the week – no one is buying it. Especially after he already admitted on a podcast this summer that he had this game circled on his pocket schedule.
There have been some truly low moments for the Browns franchise during the Deshaun Watson era. One of them happened almost a month ago, when Watson stood at a postgame press conference and called out the fans for booing him during a poor preseason performance.
Almost two years prior, some of those same fans had cheered as he was carted off the field with a ruptured Achilles in Week 7 of the 2025 campaign. His emotional rant had built up from then and boiled over when he heard the boos. It seemed impossible he'd be named the starter after that, yet here we are.
Make no mistake about it, though: of all the low points of this Watson ordeal, Sunday could turn out to be rock bottom should Mayfield exact his revenge in a blowout win against the QB who replaced him.
Such an outcome would be the starkest reality check for those inside the organization and the fans who have suffered through the Watson ordeal, of what could have been. It'll only sting more when Mayfield inevitably unloads some potshots from the holster postgame.
And yet, in some ways, Browns fans may find themselves thanking Mayfield for one final memorable moment it this game goes so poorly that it brings the Watson era in Cleveland to an unceremonious end. How's that for poetic justice?
They say revenge is a dish that's best served cold, but Mayfield could figuratively burn things down in Cleveland with a win. And so, yeah, get your popcorn ready.
