Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield reveals that he played with a sprained MCL and PCL for the vast majority of the 2025 season, one that he really fell off towards the end.
If that sounds like it is history repeating itself, it is because it is. Exactly.
The demise of Baker Mayfield in Cleveland was directly correlated with two things: a larger-than-life ego that clashed with Kevin Stefanski, and a final season in which he decided to play through a major injury that significantly impacted his play.
How does Baker Mayfield’s injury scenario in Tampa Bay compare to his Cleveland injury history?
The injury that he dealt with in Cleveland was obviously the dislocated shoulder that tore up all of the ligaments in the shoulder. That injury, after surgery, requires at least a 4-6 month recovery period.
The injury that he played through in Tampa is less severe in nature, but depending on the grade of it, could be a 1-3 week recovery or as long as an 8-12 week recovery, which ends up being fairly significant.
In the new season of Quarterback on @Netflix, Baker Mayfield says he played with sprained MCL and PCL in knee from Week 2 on, via @NFLSTROUD. https://t.co/k1SLNhGdje
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) July 13, 2026
All of these things combined into one show that Baker didn’t learn anything from what was once the worst thing that his career could have experienced. He decided to play through his injury and ended up playing so badly that the leadership of the team that drafted him, albeit not the regime that drafted him, decided to trade three first-round picks away and give the largest contract ever.
He ran the same play back and, unfortunately for him, is experiencing the same results.
After a red-hot start to the 2025 season, he fell off a cliff. After back-to-back weeks in weeks five and six against the Seahawks and 49ers, where he played elite football and was in the MVP conversation, he notched only one game with over a 100.0 passer rating. His QBR plummeted throughout the back half of the year, and the Buccaneers missed the playoffs in the worst division in football. Now, as it stands, the Buccaneers have basically made the 2026 season a prove-it year, as they have stopped negotiations on his contract extension after his three-year deal runs out.
The waters which were once warm in Tampa have gotten chilly around Mayfield. His average play is a lot to blame for it, but also, his stubbornness to understand when he needs to shut it down is something that he should have learned in Cleveland, but didn’t.
Baker has to make it happen in 2026, or he will be looking for a new home. Here’s to hoping he can make it through the entire season fully healthy.
This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: History repeated itself in 2026 for former Browns’ star Baker Mayfield
