'The thing about Baker is ...' Ex-Browns QB offers advice to Mayfield, if he stays.

Mark Miller has followed Cleveland Browns quarterbacks forever, before and after he was one.

Nothing surprises the 65-year-old Stark County resident, including the Baker Mayfield limbo dance set in motion by pursuing Deshaun Watson.

"Sometimes it doesn't make sense unless you're inside the walls," said Miller, who was a third-round draft pick of the Browns in 1978. "For the Browns to want Deshaun over Baker ... I get that.

"A lot of people think Deshaun's a more talented quarterback. He has some baggage right now, which they would have to to work through."

They won't have to. Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the Browns have been informed Watson will not be coming to Cleveland. Still, the mere pursuit triggered a storm.

As a Browns fan, Miller sees multiple sides of Mayfield vs. Watson, or Mayfield vs. any other potentially viable starter.

"The thing with Baker right now is, he's been an every-other-year player," Miller said. "He's got to put back-to-back years together.

"The thing that bothers me with Baker, even when the team had some success, is, he does not have a great penchant for final-drive scores. I think he did it once, at Cincinnati, two years ago. In a lot of close games in 2021, they had a chance to get a late score, or maybe win it, and didn't."

With Mayfield as their starter, the Browns went 6-7 in 2018, 6-10 in 2019, 11-5 in 2020 and 6-8 in 2021. He went 1-1 as a starter in two playoff games following 2020 regular season.

Watson, playing for the Houston Texans, went 3-3 in 2017, 11-5 in 2018, 10-5 in 2019 and 4-12 in 2020. He did not play in 2021 amid investigations of alleged sexual misconduct. The three-time Pro Bowl selection has been accused of sexual misconduct or sexual assault by two dozen women during massage appointments. Last Friday, a grand jury decided Watson wouldn't be criminally charged, but he still faces 22 civil lawsuits and a likely NFL suspension.

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"I'm not a legal eagle," Miller said. "I know the subject matter and there's a lot of people involved."

Miller is a quarterback expert who understands Browns history.

"My whole family lives and dies with the Browns," Miller said. "For me it started in 1964 with Jimmy Brown and Frank Ryan and Gary Collins and all those guys."

He was 8 years old and plugged in when the Browns won the 1964 NFL championship. He played quarterback at Canton South during the Browns' Mike Phipps years and was a four-year starter at Bowling Green — the first Falcons QB to earn All-American honors — as Brian Sipe worked his way up in Cleveland.

Then he and Sipe were Browns teammates.

"Brian was quiet then," Miller said. "I wouldn't say he took me under his wing. When I had a question he would answer. I don't think he thought it was his place to come help my development. We have a great relationship now."

The Browns traded Miller to the Packers in 1980, the year Sipe was league MVP. Miller finished his career in the rival USFL and settled in northwest Ohio with a growing family.

For a while, he was Bowling Green's quarterbacks coach. For a longer while, he was a radio analyst for the Falcons. More recently, before moving back to Stark County, he was business director of Elida schools.

He always watches the Browns and their quarterbacks. He had his opinions in 2018 when then-Browns GM John Dorsey picked Mayfield No. 1 overall.

"Baker was my least favorite of the top group of quarterbacks," Miller said. "Maybe it was his antics down at Ohio State. Maybe it was his size. But I'm a Browns fan, and I've supported him and I've enjoyed watching him play when he's played well."

Miller loves Josh Allen, who was picked at No. 7 overall by the Bills in 2018, and will face the Browns in 2022 in Buffalo.

"Allen will need to stay healthy," Miller said. "He runs with reckless abandon. Sam Rutigliano used to tell me, 'There are a lot of old quarterbacks in the NFL, but no old running quarterbacks.'"

The Browns still needed a quarterback in the 2018 draft after passing on both Patrick Mahomes and Watson in 2017.

"I didn't know Mahomes from anybody at the time," Miller said. "I knew he played for Texas Tech in a conference where guys throw for a zillion yards and don't necessarily do well in the pros.

"Watson played for a great team (Clemson). I remember thinking he was good. I didn't expect him to be great. He quickly turned into a very good NFL quarterback."

Miller doesn't think the pursuit of Watson would make it that hard for Mayfield to to stay with the Browns.

"Players' feelings get hurt every day," he said. "The coach yells at them. Somebody in the media says something negative. They're called out by a teammate or an opponent. That's just part of the deal."

One of the buzz stats around Watson is his 104.5 career passer rating, the same as that of Aaron Rodgers. In college, Watson won the 2016 national championship.

While Watson didn't play in 2021, plenty of people argued that Mayfield shouldn't have amid injuries. Mayfield's passer rating fell from 95.9 in the 2020 season to 83.1 in 2021.

"I appreciated Baker wanting to play," Miller said. "Almost every player does. It is the coach's duty, or the trainer, or the doctor, or some authority, to step in and say, 'This isn't right. He's either going to get hurt more, or he's not going to get any better.'

"A lot of people said, 'Well, it's his left shoulder, it's not bothering his throwing.' Oh yes it does. If that shoulder's in a harness, it throws off your balance. It throws your timing off.

"He was definitely affected by the shoulder and then the knee, and all that stuff.

"It's 20-20 hindsight. I think a lot of them up there now probably wish they'd have done it differently."

Asked what advice he would give to Mayfield if he stays in Cleveland, Miller said:

"Put your head down. Swallow your pride. Forget that they were looking to replace you, because that happens every day in the NFL. That's one area where his personality might help him a little bit. He'll get out there, get goofing around a little bit, and hopefully be right back into that starter, leader role."

While Miller wonders who will wind up at quarterback, he is glad to know there was no coaching change.

"I like Kevin Stefanski a lot," he said. "I think he's a good play caller. Plays work a whole lot better when the players execute the plays.

"We'll see who winds up at quarterback. I think they can win with Baker, and they're probably making plans to do that, too, because there's no guarantee Watson or anybody else is coming to Cleveland.

"They've got to be prepared to win with Baker, and I think they can."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Former Cleveland Browns QB talks Deshaun Watson, Baker Mayfield