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Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield confident he can finish the 2021 season healthy

Speaking to reporters, Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield discussed his outlook for the remainder of the 2021 season.

BEREA, Ohio — At this point, Baker Mayfield isn't sure whether he'll be able to play against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.

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But regardless of when he makes his return to the field, the Cleveland Browns quarterback is convinced he'll be healthy for whatever is left of the 2021 campaign.

"I am completely confident in that," Mayfield said on Wednesday. "If you go out there, you are scared and you are timid, that is how you really get hurt seriously. I can’t do that. Like I said, trying to get the strength back and be able to go as close to 100 percent as possible. If that is not the case, then we trust the guys we have out there."

Mayfield's comments come minutes before he took the practice field in Berea in hopes of making his return for Sunday's Week 8 matchup with the Steelers. After starting 51 consecutive games since his rookie season in 2018, the No. 1 pick of the 2018 NFL Draft was forced to miss the first game of his career -- a win vs. the Denver Broncos -- due to a shoulder injury that's been hindering him for the bulk of this season.

"For me, it was pretty important just because of looking at all of the dysfunction that I had to overcome to be able to start the whole time, to stay healthy and do all of that," Mayfield said of his snapped starts streak. "That was very important to me, but that is an individual thing and it is more about winning than anything."

Last week, Mayfield revealed to Fox Sports' Jay Glazer that he had suffered a fractured humerus in his left shoulder taking a sack from defensive end J.J. Watt in Cleveland's Week 6 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The play aggravated the torn labrum that he had suffered while attempting to make a tackle following an interception in the Browns' Week 2 win vs. the Houston Texans.

While the 26-year-old signal-caller ultimately didn't miss a snap through the first six weeks of the season due to the injury, the short week of preparation heading into Thursday Night Football vs. Denver proved to be too much to overcome. Mayfield said that he will gauge the status of his shoulder following practice on Wednesday but isn't going to rush to make a decision one way or the other.

"I am looking at taking it day by day," he said. "I think you guys know how I am. I want to be out there playing. Like I said last week, if it is a situation where I would hurt the team if I was out there playing, I am not going to do it.”

 

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