Browns’ Legend Claps Back at Baker Mayfield for Going After Kevin Stefanski

The Cleveland Browns decided in 2022 to end Baker Mayfield’s run as the team’s quarterback after just four seasons, sending the former first-overall pick via trade to the Carolina Panthers for a mid-round draft pick.

But even as Kevin Stefanski’s six-year tenure as head coach of the Browns also ended abruptly a little over two weeks ago, Mayfield revealed through a social media post he still harbors bitter feelings because of the way things went down.

Now, one of the team’s greatest players ever has thrown himself into the mix, stepping up for Stefanski.

I could be wrong...but I've heard that communication is a 2-way street and there were no laws against you (Baker) sending Stefanski a text or calling him after you got traded🧐 https://t.co/y7hI6zptax
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) January 21, 2026

Hall of Fame offensive tackle Joe Thomas wrote back to Mayfield on his X account, stating “I could be wrong...but I've heard that communication is a 2-way street and there were no laws against you (Baker) sending Stefanski a text or calling him after you got traded.”

Thomas’ comments come in response to a Mayfield post accusing, among other things, the club of shipping him away “like a piece of garbage”, and never getting a phone call or text message from Stefanski, then head coach in Cleveland. Mayfield’s post was a reply to a message published by D. Orlando Ledbetter, a longtime award-winning beat reporter for the Atlanta Falcons -- Stefanski’s new team --, pointing out the coach’s struggles at the quarterback position over the years with the Browns.

Mayfield, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, closed out his response by expressing how he was looking forward to facing Stefanski twice a year in the NFC South.

Thomas -- who played his entire 11-year career in Cleveland -- left the game after Cleveland’s 0-16 campaign in 2017, the season before the Browns selected Mayfield first overall. Stefanski didn’t come on board until 2020, when the Browns went 11-5 and snuck into the playoffs for the first time since 2002. Under the Stefanski/Mayfield rule, Cleveland won its first and only playoff game since 1994 during that postseason.

This wasn't the first time Thomas decided to stand in Stefanski's corner. Even though he never played for Stefanski, the O-lineman turned analyst wasn’t exactly happy when the Browns dismissed their most successful head coach in three decades.

"It's definitely a big risk. It makes me nervous because you can do a lot worse than Kevin Stefanski; he's a good coach. Are there better coaches out there available? I don't know. Maybe, but he was a pretty good coach. It's definitely a big swing and a big risk to say we're going to fire him and we don't have exactly a guy we know we're going to bring in day one to replace him," Thomas said at the time to ESPN Cleveland.

Regardless of how things ended up for Mayfield in Cleveland, he did get four years to show he could become the long-term answer for the franchise and failed at it. Then, he bounced around a couple of more teams before finally landing in Tampa Bay, where he’s making the most out of his opportunity, something he wasn’t able to do before.

And while Mayfield isn’t wrong to expect some kind of communication from the head coach after being shipped out in a trade, his bitterness might be better directed towards the front office that made the deal, a.k.a. the men responsible for acquiring Deshaun Watson in that infamous trade with the Houston Texans, essentially signaling the end of Mayfield’s tenure in Cleveland.

But whatever the case may be, all eyes will be glued to the T.V. once the Buccaneers and Falcons face each other, twice, once the new season begins.

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