{"id":771635,"date":"2026-02-23T18:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/771635\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:53:16","slug":"browns-former-qb-baker-mayfield-retreats-from-kevin-stefanski-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/771635\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns former QB Baker Mayfield retreats from Kevin Stefanski comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 23, 2026, 11:59 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While neither quarterback Baker Mayfield nor former head coach Kevin Stefanski is with the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cleveland-browns\/329\" data-autotag=\"9cb205d1-d46a-4c2c-a80a-90061986bc20\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Cleveland Browns<\/a> any longer, they are <a href=\"http:\/\/brownswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/browns\/2026\/01\/20\/browns-feud-baker-mayfield-shot-kevin-stefanski\/88273768007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">still making headlines<\/a> from their time together in Northeast Ohio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">After Stefanski, who was fired by the Browns at the end of the 2025 season, was hired by the Atlanta Falcons, Mayfield took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to let his feelings be known. Now in the same division and igniting a real NFC South rivalry, Mayfield responded to a post by Falcons&#8217; beat writer Orlando Ledbetter, who stated that, &#8220;Kevin Stefanski had a dumpster fire at quarterback in Cleveland &#8212; Baker Mayfield and Deshaun Watson failed, which started a chain reaction to 11 other starters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Mayfield took exception to this, and responded:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text\/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can\u2019t wait to see you twice a year, Coach.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Stefanski was then asked about these comments, and in typical Stefanski fashion, did not dive too deep into the drama and took the high road. Now, Mayfield seems to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/video\/video\/nfl\/super-bowl\/video\/baker-mayfield-on-sam-darnold-kevin-stefanski-and-qb-mentality-01khpkhzn97jv5t57g8z\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">backpedaling from these harsh comments<\/a> when asked about the relationship between himself and his former head coach:<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;There\u2019s stuff there, but it\u2019s not like it\u2019s beef. We\u2019ve worked together. Anytime you know somebody, you want to beat them, whether it\u2019s a good or bad relationship&#8230; Not a revenge game of a sense of Atlanta, but we lost the division for the first time since four or five years, so any divisional game will be a revenge game, I guess.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This is quite a diplomatic backpedal from a normally outspoken quarterback. It&#8217;s rare for him not to stand by his words. Anyway, get the popcorn ready for when these two former Browns go head-to-head in the NFC South.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 23, 2026, 11:59 a.m. ET While neither quarterback Baker Mayfield nor former head coach Kevin Stefanski is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[95878,86,85,54,2337,7,6,97243,97244,95882,96861,95957,96707,95888,95895,95899,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-771635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-browns","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-browns","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbrowns","16":"tag-sstsnbrowns","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbaker-mayfield","19":"tag-tagcleveland-browns","20":"tag-tagdeshaun-watson","21":"tag-tagnfl","22":"tag-tagnfl-hub","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-tagtwitter","26":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116121462724918307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}