Baker Mayfield faces the Cleveland Browns and Deshaun Watson on Sunday in Tampa, and the man who coached him in Cleveland in 2018 has not softened his view of what was given away when the trade happened in 2022.
Ken Zampese, now the Buccaneers’ senior offensive assistant and pass game specialist, told ESPN that the Browns had the guy and gave him up. He said that in 2018, when they went 5-3 in the second half of the season after the organization had started 1-31 across the previous two years, the city came alive because they had finally found a quarterback who worked out. He said they mucked it up.
Zampese was the Browns’ quarterbacks coach in 2018. When asked whether Cleveland shared his view, he said it doesn’t matter and that Tampa got the guy they wanted.
He went 29-30 as a starter there, leading the team to its first playoff win in 26 years with a 48-37 win at Pittsburgh in January 2021, throwing for 263 yards and three touchdowns. That run ended with a 22-17 divisional-round loss to Kansas City.
The end in Cleveland
The following season, 2021, was difficult. He played through a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder sustained in Week 2, wearing a harness to stabilize the joint that his then-offensive coordinator said affected his mechanics. He also dealt with knee and foot injuries, death threats on social media and public criticism from a teammate’s family.
He learned through social media in March 2022 that the team was pursuing Watson in a trade. He told ESPN at the time that the relationship was too far gone to mend and that moving on was in both sides’ best interests. The Browns gave Watson a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract and traded the quarterback to Carolina for a conditional draft pick in July 2022. The Panthers released him in December.
The rebuild
A brief stint with the Los Angeles Rams reconnected him with the game and introduced him to coaches who would follow him to Tampa. Mayfield signed a one-year deal with the Buccaneers in 2023 and won the NFC South that season, adding a playoff win over Philadelphia. He won another division title in 2024 before an injury-shortened 2025 season. Mayfield was rewarded this offseason with a three-year, $165 million extension.
He told ESPN he thinks about the first playoff win since 1994 and the road win in Pittsburgh and remembers more good than bad from his time in Cleveland. He said he learned to be the same person every day for the people around him and to control what he can control.
Monken’s candor
First-year Browns head coach Todd Monken was the quarterback’s offensive coordinator in 2019, the year the team finished 6-10. Monken said he wishes he had done a better job with him that year and has said it many times. He said you have to own what you can be better at as a coach. He called the quarterback’s play in recent years elite and said he is exactly what you look for in a player and a person.
The immediate situation
Watson, whose start this week was confirmed by Monken on Wednesday, has gone 9-11 as the starter after injuries cost him nearly two full seasons. He threw a touchdown and an interception and was sacked five times in a 34-10 loss to Jacksonville in Week 1.
Mayfield fumbled three times in a 33-27 season-opening loss at Cincinnati. Zampese called it a blip on the radar and said there will be a heightened awareness around ball security Sunday. He said Mayfield is carrying all of them and that the team has great confidence in him going forward.
He told a podcast this summer he has had this game circled since the schedule came out.
