Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield has vented his frustrations over the treatment he received from his former head coach Kevin Stefanski, who he will now face twice a year as an opponent.
Stefanski was Mayfield’s head coach at the Browns before Cleveland traded the quarterback to the Carolina Panthers in 2022. The two are now in the NFC South after Atlanta hired Stefanski on Saturday.
Mayfield appeared to be angered after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter posted that Stefanski said Mayfield and another Browns quarterback, Deshaun Watson, had “failed” in Cleveland.
“Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage,” Mayfield posted on social media on Tuesday. “Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach.”
The Browns drafted Mayfield, a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma, first overall in 2018. He played four seasons in Cleveland, passing for 3,725 yards in his first season and throwing and a then-NFL rookie record 27 touchdown passes. In Stefanski’s first season in 2020, Mayfield led the Browns to the playoffs for the first time in 17 years and their first postseason victory in 26 seasons.
But Mayfield also struggled with consistency – throwing 22 TD passes and 21 interceptions in 2019 – and wasn’t afraid to confront critics of his play.
After being traded to the Panthers, then spending time with the Los Angeles Rams, Mayfield found himself at a crossroads. But he has turned his career around with Tampa Bay, being named to the Pro Bowl twice and leading the Buccaneers to the playoffs in 2023 and 2024 before a late-season collapse that kept the Bucs out of this year’s postseason.
Stefanski, a two-time AP Coach of the Year, coached the Browns for six years before he was fired after this season. The Falcons hired him less than two weeks later.
