NFL fans were given a tasty Week 2 matchup for the 2026 season when it was learned last week that the Cleveland Browns will play at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 20.
That is tracking to be just the second time that Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield will face the Browns since they moved on from him following the 2021 season. During a recent edition of the “Orange and Brown Talk Podcast,” Browns beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer warned the AFC North club about having to go up against the Mayfield-led Buccaneers later this year.
Baker Mayfield waiting to give the Browns a “how do you like me now” revenge message?
“Baker Mayfield will have no trouble whatsoever getting his game face on for this game against the Browns coming to town,” Cabot explained. “All he has to tell himself, ‘They cast me aside for Deshaun Watson and look how it went. ‘How do you like me now, Cleveland?'”
Mayfield hasn’t hidden over the years that he felt “like a piece of dirty laundry” after the Browns acquired Watson from the Houston Texans in March 2022 and then signed him to a fully guaranteed five-year, $230M contract. Later that year, Mayfield started for the Carolina Panthers against the Browns. Cleveland earned a 26-24 win that afternoon.
Meanwhile, Watson has made just 19 regular-season starts for the Browns. Cleveland reportedly does not plan to bring him back next year, regardless of how he plays through January 2027.
This past winter, Mayfield fired a shot directed at new Atlanta Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski related to the Browns trading Mayfield “like a piece of garbage” when Stefanski was Cleveland’s head coach in 2022. As it pertains to the current Browns, it appears as of the morning of May 18 that Watson will enter the 2026 season as Cleveland’s QB1 over 2025 rookie Shedeur Sanders. The Browns open the campaign with a game at the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 13.
Baker Mayfield’s moxie will be on display in Week 2
“The moxie of Baker Mayfield is he will hold his grudges, and he will be amped up to go against this team that he still has a lot of feelings about,” Browns beat reporter Ashley Bastock of the Cleveland Plain Dealer added during the podcast episode.
The Buccaneers open the regular season with a contest at the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 13. It could be interesting to see what Mayfield has to say about the Browns once he can put the Bengals game behind him.