Briggs: Yes, the Browns are a disaster, but Mayfield revisionist history is just wrong

It would be natural to watch Baker Mayfield enter the MVP race — not to mention Joe Flacco ride in on his white steed and rescue another team in distress — and conclude the people running the Browns are idiots.

Join the club.

In a not-too-distant alternate universe, Mayfield would still be in Cleveland and slinging the Browns into Super Bowl contention.

In this universe, he is starring for the first-place Tampa Bay Buccaneers while the last-place Browns are an irredeemable disaster, stuck with a broken-down quarterback they gave up everything — three first-round picks, $230 million, their shame — to acquire. Cleveland is 1-3 against the softest part of its schedule (its opponents are 2-10 against teams not named the Browns).

The juxtaposition is jarring, and, again, it has added another splash of gasoline on the NFL’s easiest narrative: The Browns are idiots for dumping Mayfield and throwing themselves at Watson.

“If the Browns kept Baker, they’d be the Vikings,” ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky posted on X in a nod to quarterback Sam Darnold, who is enjoying a career renaissance of his own for still-perfect Minnesota.

It’s a good theory, but for one problem.

Only half of it is true.

While the Browns made a catastrophically poor choice to go all in on Watson, I think we’re letting a little historical revisionism get in the way of the facts with Mayfield.

If the Browns kept Baker, they’d be … the Browns.

The relitigation of the past conveniently overlooks the complicated context of Mayfield’s exit from Cleveland.

Don’t forget the relationship between franchise and quarterback was broken, with both sides bearing a share of the blame.

Flash back to Mayfield’s final go-around with the Browns in 2021.

After three seasons in which he exasperated and exhilarated in equal measure — the former top overall pick tossed 21 interceptions in 2019, then had a top-10 QB rating and led Cleveland to its first playoff win in 26 years in 2020 — it all came apart early that final year.

Mayfield tore his labrum in his non-throwing shoulder in Week 2 against the Texans, and, while he admirably played through the injury, he was not the same.

After lighting it up the first two weeks, his completion percentage fell to 57.7 percent — the second-worst mark in the league — the rest of the season.

"When [the injury] started hindering my play and going downhill, that's when I was like, 'Oh [expletive]," Mayfield said on a podcast. "That's when I started losing my own self-confidence and just losing myself.”

Meanwhile, the Browns clearly had little confidence in him, either. They questioned whether he was their long-term answer even after 2020 — declining to engage in extension talks — and the 2021 season only clarified their concerns, on the field and off.

The debacle that year featured a rift between Mayfield and Odell Beckham, Jr., that divided the locker room. Mayfield won the battle — Cleveland released OBJ, who, naturally, went on to win the Super Bowl months later with the Rams — but the Browns were clearly done with him, too. They saw Mayfield as “childish and immature,” per the Athletic, and — remember this one — wanted an “adult” at quarterback, per ESPN.

Bottom line: Neither side trusted the other, and it’s unlikely the Mayfield we’re seeing today would have come to be in Cleveland.

If he were to flourish, he needed fresh scenery.

Worth noting, too, Mayfield then flopped in Carolina — where he was released after seven games — and spent time with the Rams before reinvigorating his career in Tampa Bay last season. (By the way, Darnold is on his fourth team, too.)

Again, that’s not to take the Browns off the hook, in any way.

They made a complicated situation 230 times worse in choosing Watson as the “adult” to push a loaded roster over the top.

While Watson looked solid in the Browns’ loss Sunday in Las Vegas, that’s a well-worn topic for any other day.

But narratives are rarely as simple as they seem.

My sense is a little humility has gone a long way for the 29-year-old Mayfield, and good for him. He’s looked great.

Just because he’s thriving in Tampa doesn’t mean he would be in Cleveland, which is staring at is 11th losing season since Jimmy Haslam bought the franchise in 2012.

If the Browns kept Mayfield, they would not be the Vikings.

Unfortunately, a franchise incapable of having nice things would still be the Browns.