Baker Mayfield is back and hoping to deliver a rather sizable Christmas gift for the Cleveland Browns. The 26-year-old was relegated to the reserve/COVID-19 list last week and forced to watch his team drop a nail-biter in Week 15 to the Las Vegas Raiders, with Nick Mullens doing all he could to put them in position to win before the defense fell eventually fell short. Now facing a must-win against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday, the hope was Mayfield would clear protocol and take the field to try and outperform a red-hot Aaron Rodgers.
Mayfield has done just that and will start for the Browns at Lambeau Field. He all but confirmed the news in a post on Instagram — showing his arrival in Green Bay.
Mayfield isn’t the only starter making sure he’s in uniform for Cleveland.
Myles Garrett, a front-runner for 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year who is dealing with a groin injury, is also expected to take the field. And the Browns are also getting receiver Jarvis Landry back as well. This is all fantastic news for the Browns, who fell from first to last in the AFC North with their loss to the Raiders — a game they nearly stole away from Las Vegas. By virtue of that game having been rescheduled, they’ll have a extremely short turnaround to try and right the ship and potentially save the season against the Packers, who sit at 11-3 and atop the NFC.
The Packers aren’t going to make things easy for the Browns in any capacity, considering the former finds themselves locked in a race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC that won’t allow them to lose a single game in their final three contests. If they were to suffer a loss over the next three weeks, it kicks the door open for the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Los Angeles Rams to leapfrog them in the standings.
All told, it should be one of the most electric games of the week, and Mayfield has no choice but to show up and show out, if the Browns are to have any shot at all at keeping their playoff hopes alive.
