Much to Browns' Dismay, Stark Contrast Between Deshaun Watson and Baker Mayfield Will Be on Full Display

As the Cleveland Browns prepare to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Week 2, quarterback status for both franchises couldn’t be more contrasting.

While the Browns are stuck playing a $230 million quarterback who can’t find a way to win 10 games over the course of four plus seasons, the Bucs agreed to the largest extension in franchise history for their current passer right before the regular season kicked off a few days ago.

The real irony, of course, is that Cleveland gave up six draft picks -- including three first rounders -- and the league’s still record fully guaranteed deal in 2022 to bring in Deshaun Watson as a replacement for Baker Mayfield, who the Browns took first overall in the 2018 NFL Draft before giving up on him.

Since being discarded by the team that drafted him in exchange for a conditional fifth rounder, Mayfield bounced around a couple of teams before landing in Tampa Bay in 2023, where he’s already collected two Pro Bowl nods and a contract extension that makes the Bucs’ faith in him pretty obvious.

Meanwhile, Watson has spent most of his time either injured or suspended. And, when he has played, he’s limped to a 9-11 record as a starter that at one time had him pegged as a “swing and a miss” by team ownership, before being suspiciously elevated to the starting role.

Since taking the Bucs’ starting job in ‘23, Mayfield has thrown for over 4,000 yards twice and for over 25 passing touchdowns three times, starting every possible game for his club. Watson has limped his way to 3,570 passing yards and 20 passing touchdowns since ‘22.

Nonetheless, the largest gap between Cleveland’s and Tampa Bay’s current quarterbacks doesn’t reside in the stats, but elsewhere.

What is the biggest difference between Deshaun Watson and Baker Mayfield in 2026?

Mayfield exhibited a very level-headed approach when asked recently about memories from his Cleveland days, avoiding being confrontational before the Week 2 showdown.

“Yeah, I mean, with any experience, there’s ups and downs, good and bad. Ultimately, you remember the good more so than the bad. Yeah, first time having a playoff win since ’94 there. And going on the road and doing it in Pittsburgh.

“So, a lot of good memories there. A lot of teammates that are friends for life. But like I said earlier, it’s a very different building now.”

For context, that win on the road over the Steelers still stands as the Browns last playoff win and the only one in over three decades.

But regardless of Mayfield’s restrained demeanor, anyone who has followed Mayfield’s career knows he carries an iceberg-sized chip on his shoulder everywhere he goes. As a matter of fact, there is no way a two-time walk-on -- at Texas Tech and Oklahoma -- can become a Heisman Trophy winner and the first overall draft pick in the NFL without that “I’ll prove everybody wrong” mentality, one that will surely be on display once he sees those Browns’ uniforms across the field on Sunday, despite Cleveland becoming “a very different building now.”

On the other hand, the Browns will be led by a quarterback more interested in deflecting responsibility than actually playing good football.

Over the past few months, Watson has gone on a tirade blaming fans for booing him for “personal” reasons and not performance, blamed the media for expecting him to “throw for 400 yards and five TDs every week,”, despite him never even reaching 300 passing yards or four touchdowns in any game over the last four-plus years, and insulted fans with a tone-deaf self-evaluation after Week 1’s disaster of a performance in Jacksonville by stating he was “operating well.”

Accountability is a foreign concept in Watson’s universe, going back to his concerning legal issues as a player in Houston. However, his most recent displays of lack of self-awareness -- enabled by head coach Todd Monken and the rest of the front office -- make the contrast even starker with Mayfield, who said after the Bucs’ Week 1 loss to Cincy that “This one falls on me,” after a three-fumble outing.

Monken has already suggested that, even if the locker room might be fracturing internally due to Watson keeping the starting gig over Shedeur Sanders, he doesn’t care too much about those team dynamics -- “They don't have a choice."

We’ll give Watson credit for one quote though, as he’s right when saying “Everybody makes bad plays.”

But unlike Mayfield, owning up to those mistakes is just not a Watson thing.

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