Stephen A. Smith Slams Baker Mayfield After Team’s Loss: ‘You Don’t Want To Play With This Guy’
After the Cleveland Browns suffered a 38-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon, some NFL analysts, including the notoriously harsh critic Stephen A. Smith, said it was time for members of the team to move away from Baker Mayfield’s offensive leadership.
He specifically mentioned the two star wide receivers that play for the Browns in his latest post-game review, as reported by ESPN.
“Odell Beckham Jr. needs to demand a trade.”
Beckham is known for expressing his emotions after games and was clearly upset after yesterday’s matchup. He slammed his helmet down onto the field in frustration after the clock ran out.
“Jarvis Landry should demand a trade. Anybody who is a pass catcher, you don’t want to play with this guy because he’s not gonna make you look good,” Smith said of Mayfield’s quarterbacking.
Smith also described Mayfield as ineffective and opined that he drew unnecessary additional attention to himself with the multiple endorsement deals he currently has. Finally, the sports analyst said that the coaching staff needs to do a better job of getting players open offensively.
Currently, neither Beckham nor Landry have commented on whether they are planning to stay with the Browns. If either of them plans to leave the club, the NFL’s trade deadline is coming up soon on November 3.
According to Yahoo Sports, Mayfield may have struggled because of a lingering rib injury he got during last week’s victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Although the 25-year-old claimed the injury did not impact his performance, head coach Kevin Stefanski felt differently. The coach benched him in the third quarter to prevent further damage.
“I know he wants to fight, but it’s a long season, we’ve got a game next week, and I didn’t feel like it was the right thing to put him back there,” Stefanski explained.
Mayfield stated that he understood why he was pulled and that his current focus is on the squad’s upcoming game against the Cincinnati Bengals, not the most recent collapse.
“You do not want to let it landslide. You do not want to let one [loss] turn into two. We have to learn from these mistakes, learn from this and move forward,” Mayfield stated in a post-game interview regarding how the team will bounce back, as reported by the Cleveland Browns.
Prior to Sunday’s loss, the club was off to its best start since the 1994 season, at a record of 4-2.
