Baker Mayfield Was Reportedly Confronted By Several Browns Players After He Publicly Criticized Duke Johnson

Getty Image

Browns players weren’t happy with Baker Mayfield for criticizing running back Duke Johnson, who has requested a trade by the team after they signed Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb in the offseason.

When Johnson showed up to minicamp, Mayfield had some things to say.

Via Yahoo Sports

“It’s not awkward. No. It’s self-inflicted,” Mayfield said with a shrug. “It is what it is. That’s not awkward for anybody else in this building.”

The follow-up question was, how do you support him as a teammate while he’s here?

“He’s got to do his job. He said he’s a professional, I hope he does his job,” Mayfield said.

According to NFL Network’s Mike Silver, several Browns players confronted Mayfield for taking shots at Johnson.

So it is rather striking for a player to get involved in a teammate’s business in anything but a supportive role,” Silver said on NFL Network’s Inside Minicamp Camp Live. “We saw it last year with the Steelers and Le’Veon Bell — that was an anomaly. Baker Mayfield is the clear leader of that (locker room) but I’m told by multiple sources that several veterans came up to him in the locker room after those comments about Duke Johnson and let’s say voiced their displeasure, saying, ‘Listen it’s one thing to be the leader but this is a guy who is going through something, it’s business and we need to support him.’ Baker may not have agreed with them, but he heard them and so that is something to keep an eye on as a very, very talented team gets ready for what could be a big season.

This isn’t college, Mayfield isn’t the top dog and he’ll get put in a check by vets on the team whenever he says anything dumb.