KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes likely went to sleep on April 26, 2017, dreaming of being the No. 1 pick in the next day’s NFL Draft.
One year later, Baker Mayfield lived that dream — and proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that being No. 1 isn’t always for the best.
“I don’t want to say I’m glad (I wasn’t the No. 1 pick),” Mahomes said during a press conference this week as the Chiefs prepare to face Mayfield’s Browns in Cleveland. “I mean, I’m glad I’m here. For sure. But you want to be the No. 1 draft pick. You want to be that guy.”
Do you, though?
Being picked first overall by the Browns on April 26, 2018, at AT&T Stadium in Dallas may have permanently stunted Mayfield’s development as an NFL quarterback.
He instantly became the face of arguably the most dysfunctional team in the NFL, a fate that would have awaited Mahomes in 2017, when the Browns chose defensive end Myles Garrett with the No. 1 pick in that year’s draft.
There was a time playing quarterback in Cleveland wasn’t a career death sentence.
The Browns dominated the early years of the All-American Football Conference, winning all four league titles.
Behind Otto Graham, Cleveland also won the 1950 NFL title after a merger between rival leagues in reaching championship games each season from 1946-55 — a span that included two more titles in 1954 and ’55 , for a total of seven.
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More recently, the Browns, who finished first in the standings in 12 of the first 13 seasons of the franchise’s existence, won the old AFC Central for the fourth time in five seasons in 1989.
That season, Cleveland reached a third AFC Championship Game in five years, but owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore in 1995 and the Browns went on a three-year pro football hiatus from 1996-98.
Since the Browns were reestablished in 1999, there have been two winning seasons, one playoff appearance and no playoff victories.
Tell us all again how lucky Mayfield was to be the No. 1 pick.
Coming off only the second 0-16 season in NFL history, the Browns are on track for an eighth straight last-place finish in the AFC North and have averaged barely five wins during the last 25 seasons.
Head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired Monday after an awkward power struggle fueled by the HBO training camp series “Hard Knocks.”
Mayfield’s first season in the NFL effectively is a wash.
He’ll have to start over in 2019 with new coaches, running a new system and probably with diminished confidence after taking his own hard knocks as Cleveland’s latest lamb to the QB slaughter.
Meanwhile, Mahomes went No. 10 overall and landed in a perfect situation.
He had the luxury of sitting behind an established (and magnanimous) Pro Bowl quarterback in Alex Smith while studying under the tutelage of one of the finest offensive minds in NFL history in Andy Reid.
Why would anyone trade that for “No. 1 pick” status?
“I am grateful to be in this situation in general,” Mahomes said. “Just being with Coach Reid, I know he’s going to get the best out of me. I know all of these coaches understand how to put me in the right position and put me around guys like Tyreek (Hill), (Travis) Kelce, and Sammy (Watkins). At the same time, I know that (the Browns) have guys now that are putting their quarterbacks in the right position, and Baker is having a great season. It kind of goes like that in the NFL. You just try to get in the right situation with the right people around you.”
Mayfield is 1-4 as a starter, has completed barely 58 percent of his passes, has been sacked 20 times, and boasts eight touchdowns against six interceptions.
In other words, that “right situation” Mahomes talks about wasn’t found with the team that spit the bit hardest last season to earn the top overall pick, a feat the Browns have achieved five times.
Meanwhile, after being handed the Chiefs’ reins during the offseason, Mahomes has taken the NFL by storm, leading KC to the best record in the AFC halfway through the season (7-1) and establishing himself as the betting favorite to win NFL MVP.
For Mahomes, he would have volunteered to play for Reid with the Chiefs.
“If I had been in college and gotten offers, I would’ve chosen Kansas City,” Mahomes said.
Does anyone think Mayfield, who once hosted Mahomes on a recruiting visit at Texas Tech, would say the same?
And that’s way more valuable than being on some fancy Wikipedia pageof former No. 1 picks.
