Justin Jefferson takes shot at Baker Mayfield

The Cleveland Browns quarterback was the target of a critical tweet from the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver.

When the Cleveland Browns moved on from Odell Beckham Jr. earlier this season anyone and everyone knew that if he was successful criticism would fall on the team and quarterback Baker Mayfield. Well that happened by way of Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson.

OBJ WAS NOT THE PROBLEM!! I hope y’all see that now…CLOWNS😂😂🤡🤡

— JJETS✈️ (@JJettas2) December 14, 2021

The tweet from Jefferson does not specifically mention Baker Mayfield, but it’s easy to decipher who he is referring to. A lot of the discussion on why the Browns offense struggled was built upon criticism of Beckham and not the obvious deficiencies of Mayfield. With how things have unfolded since Beckham’s release, the latter appears to have more to stand on.

Baker Mayfield has thrown just five touchdowns to wide receivers this season with Donovan Peoples-Jones leading with three. Beckham has three touchdowns in his last three games and has impressive outings of five receptions for 81 yards and six receptions for 77 yards along the way. Beckham’s performance in Monday night’s win over Arizona being his best of the season.

Once the Browns moved on from Beckham there was some misguided hope that Baker Mayfield would suddenly revert to playing well just like the end of last season. The reality is that without Beckham the offense has no spacing and defenses have nobody to account for in the passing game due to Mayfield not being good enough to make them pay. At least with Beckham they would dedicate multiple defenders to one player, now the Browns face eight, nine, and sometimes 10 men in the box.

The reality of the situation is not one that Browns fans want to hear. While it was obvious that the combination of Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham Jr. was not going to work they most likely sent the wrong person packing. The more the Browns see from Mayfield, the less comfortable they should be with making him their quarterback for the future.