| IndyNorm |
03-20-2022 01:07 PM |
Maybe it's b/c we're staring down the barrel of a throw away season, but the more I think about it the more I'd like to see us take a chance on Baker as long as the price is right draft pick wise (as mentioned less than what we got for Wentz). Here are some thoughts on his shortcomings:
His inconsistency: A lot of his inconsistency the first 2 years could be chalked up to incompetent coaching staffs. While Gregg Williams seemed to right the ship a bit as the interim after Jackson was fired, Jackson and Kitchens were obviously in way over their heads. How do you think things would have gone if we had canned Clappy halfway through '17 and then brought in Chud as the HC in '18? When the Browns hired a competent coaching staff Mayfield had a really good year in '20. Then in '21 he was playing injured from week 2 on. Also, every QB who has played under Reich has improved, so we have that going for us too.
Drama: For starters it's the Browns, really don't need to say more but I will. Obviously he could have handled things much better, but I'm guessing a lot of the drama was OBJ's fault. OBJ has shown what a giant douche he can be in NYG, and I could definitely see him deciding he wanted out of Cleveland and stirred up all kinds of shit to make that happen sooner rather than later. Again, just guessing on my part, but it's totally plausible.
Contract: Could be wrong, but the fact that Baker specifically wants to come here should give us leverage when it comes to his contract. This should help in either convincing Baker to play out his contract and if he performs then get an extension or extending him to a more team friend incentive driven deal. For the former Ballard has shown that for the most part if you produce and are good in the locker room he'll pay to keep you, so it shouldn't be hard to convince Baker of that. And the Browns are stupid, so maybe Ballard convinces them to eat a portion of his '22 salary to save on his cap hit.
Anyway, just my .02.
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