Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield expands on regrets about end of Browns tenure

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has admitted on multiple occasions he was stubborn by declining to have surgery to repair a serious injury to his left (non-throwing) shoulder while with the Cleveland Browns in the fall of 2021.

During a recent chat with Jeff Howe of The Athletic, Mayfield expanded on regrets he has regarding what became his final season as a member of the Browns.

"Playing as banged up as I was, and knowing the year I was coming off of in 2020 and not getting to that point again, not physically being able to do it," Mayfield explained. "I felt like I was a part of Cleveland, just that blue-collar mentality. I tried to give everything I had to those fans, but it didn’t wind up working out."

The Browns made Mayfield the first pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, and he largely looked like a long-term answer at the sport's most important position as he guided the 2020 edition of the club to the franchise's first playoff appearance since January 2003 and its first postseason win since January 1995. However, he struggled during the 2021 campaign after he suffered his initial shoulder injury in Week 2, and he then watched from home as the Browns traded with the Houston Texans for signal-caller Deshaun Watson in March 2022.

In January 2021, Cleveland gave the Kansas City Chiefs a scare but ultimately endured a 22-17 divisional-round loss at Arrowhead Stadium. That was the closest Mayfield ever got to taking the Browns to where they've never before been -- a Super Bowl.

"I saw us coming very close to beating the Chiefs in the divisional round in 2020," Mayfield added. "So in my mind, I was like, OK, if I can just heal back up and play close to that potential, we’ll be back in the same spot and maybe be in the AFC Championship. There’s a lot of things you can go back and (try to) change, but I’m not going to do that."

In his first season with the Buccaneers, Mayfield added a division title and another playoff victory to his career résumé en route to earning a new three-year contract from the organization. Meanwhile, acquiring Watson could go down as one of the biggest mistakes ever made by any Browns regime.