A Ravens perspective on the Browns picking Baker Mayfield at number 1 overall

With the first overall pick, the Cleveland Browns have officially made quarterback QB Baker Mayfield the new face of the franchise. Now that we know who the Ravens will be facing twice a year, how should this affect the balance of the AFC North moving forward?

The immediate answer is not by much, at least not much more than it had already been tipped when Cleveland swung for Tyrod Taylor earlier in the offseason. Baker quickly rose up to become the guy here for the Browns late in the process, but his ascent is halted by the presence of the bridge starter.

Tyrod isn’t the perfect quarterback to lead Cleveland into the promised land (the hope for them is that Mayfield will be), but in the meantime he’ll serve them just fine. After all, he led the historically hapless Bills to the playoffs for the first time in almost twenty years so he knows a thing or two about breaking up a historically bad run. To top it off, Mayfield has drawn some comparisons to Taylor throughout this process, so the partnership should prove to be a good one between the two.

The move is the big one Cleveland have seemed afraid to make over the past couple of seasons; They’ll have to hope that Baker turns out to be anything close to what Carson Wentz, Deshaun Watson, and countless other they’ve passed on have shown they can be.

Regardless, the Browns have officially begun the first move in their youth rebuild of the John Dorsey era. We’ll see who they pick at four, but for now, the process has officially kicked into high gear over by the lake.