T.J. Houshmandzadeh Defends Baker Mayfield
January 26th, 2026
“Say how you feel.”
Last week former Bucs quarterback Shaun King had harsh words for Baker Mayfield after Mayfield went off on his former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, who now is in Atlanta.
One man who has Mayfield’s back is former 11-year NFL receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. The two AFC North players never had their careers overlap in the division, but Houshmandzadeh believes Mayfield had a damn good reason for calling out Stefanski on Twitter.
Besides, Houshmandzadeh said, what better way to spice up a division rivalry than for a quarterback to blast his rival head coach on social media?
“Yeah, this is why people root for Baker Mayfield,” said Houshmandzadeh, who appeared with Emmanuel Acho on the “Speakeasy” podcast. “This is why. Because what other quarterback, or how many other quarterbacks would just send this tweet out?
“Yeah, they may speak on [the gripe] when they play, yeah, but they wouldn’t send this out now.”
Houshmandzadeh said he’s looking forward to the NFL’s schedule release this spring.
“Man, when [are] the Bucs gonna play the Falcons?” Houshmandzadeh asked. “Because you just want to see how that interaction is gonna be.”
If Mayfield wasn’t wired to want to destroy anyone who crossed his path, he likely wouldn’t be an NFL starting quarterback, Houshmandzadeh said. He believes the anger drives Mayfield to succeed.
“This is why Baker is who he is as a player,” Houshmandzadeh said. “This is why he’s made it as far as he’s made it in the league, being the first pick, because he always has that chip on the shoulder.”
Mayfield isn’t wrong in this hassle, per Houshmandzadeh, who is of the mind Stefanski did something to Mayfield for Mayfield to go off like this years after leaving Cleveland.
“[The starting quarterback and the offensive coordinator/head coach] sit in a lot of meetings … we spend a lot of time together.
“We’re talking on the phone a lot, going over the game plan. I’m telling you what I like and don’t like on the game over the phone a lot.
“So you mean to tell me you can’t just give me a call? And that bothered [Mayfield], because he would have never tweeted that had that not been bothering him.
“It still was bothering him, and it’s been years now, and so I don’t mind it, because this side, this how you feel, say how you feel.”
Joe gets why some folks are old school about this and don’t think Mayfield should be kicking a hornet’s nest.
Joe comes at this from the content side. Joe thinks it is awesome that a quarterback would call out a coach of a division rival before Championship Sunday.
How better to rekindle a nasty rivalry than for a quarterback to blast a coach like this? In January!
"This is why Baker Mayfield has made it as far as he's made it, he always has that chip on his shoulder"
– @housh84 weighs in on Baker Mayfield's recent twitter beef about getting cut in Cleveland
COME JOIN THE CHAT RIGHT NOW ➡️ https://t.co/f4H3dQB55c pic.twitter.com/5YlpqllCif
— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) January 21, 2026
January 26th, 2026 at 5:43 am
That’s part of that moxie that drives him to play injured and lead his team to a 2-7 losing streak!!
January 26th, 2026 at 6:39 am
I’m tired of hearing about his moxie and he got that dawg and that all crap lol how about some wins? How about not throwing dumb ints in crunch time? How about not throwing a inaccurate pass that would of gotten a first down against atl and likely win the division for the bucs? I got one foot in and one foot out with baker. Love the guy not saying I want him gone or anything as he’s our only best option right now but enough of that moxie and gritty stuff just win games man.
January 26th, 2026 at 6:56 am
Can we stop trying to find things to like about this guy? Why are you trying to build him up? any other qb with this type of play, you would have destroyed him by now? What’s the difference now?? I wonder???
January 26th, 2026 at 7:39 am
Tj what a mouthful… Quarterback is,a lot about coaching, fit, and organization. One of the persistent myths is that multiple teams is an indication of a bad player. One loudmouth on this board keeps repeating as proof
Positive that baker has been on 4 teams. Well guess what? Sam Darnolds, 5th team. He finally landed in a good city and a good team wth solid ownership..How can you explain the Vikings letting a,12 game winner go? Lousy ownership in a lousy city that explodes in riots every 5 years. Baker had an off year after 2 stellar ones. He will bounce back. Het a good backup so he does not have to play hurt and draft another Buckeye receiver.
January 26th, 2026 at 7:42 am
Agreed Heavt E. Apply that to all Quarterbacks. Why is,Mahomes still around after the lousy season he had? Hurt? Lame excuse.
January 26th, 2026 at 7:47 am
Stop blaming Mayfield if he’s injured but still wants to play. It’s up to the HC to sit his butt down if he physically can’t perform. Mayfield would kick and scream, but do what’s best for him and the team until he recovers. Concerning Stephanski and that pile of garbage in the front office in Cleveland, Baker took it easy on them! It was as a terrible organization when they cut him and now they’re cursed for eternity. I don’t know, too dramatic? Lol
Lastly, go ask Seattle if Baker can play!
January 26th, 2026 at 7:54 am
I see the click bait worked again on the Baker haters.
Last night I watched Sam Darnold pick apart the Rams. Sam has had quite a year considering that he was brought to Seattle as a backup only. I’ll remind you losers that The Bucs beat the Seahawks in the early part of the season in Seattle when the Bucs were playing with healthy starters. Baker put up 379 yards and 2 TDs in that game.
Last night the Seattle OC had Sam rolling out on pass plays to avoid the LA rush.We had a rookie OC that couldn’t even get plays called in on a timely manner and Baker was playing behind a patchwork offensive line the last half of the year that couldn’t even block well enough to get one yard four times in a row on several occasions.
In case you have forgotten Sam was a backup to Baker in Carolina (on a very bad team). The bottom line is this is a team game and one single player can not win games when the rest of the team is hurt or they are just not good players. I’d like to see Baker go to the Rams after this season when Stafford retires.
January 26th, 2026 at 7:57 am
Mayfield is who he is because 1) he can make every throw a NFL QB needs to make,2) his arm is a howitzer,3) he is a great competitor/leader. The rest of this chip on shoulder stuff is just copy for a story.
January 26th, 2026 at 8:21 am
If memory serves all he did was call out a reporter or someone who posted that he wasn’t good in Cleveland and posted what happened from his side of things because he was there. No one knows what happened in Cleveland but I believe Baker more than anyone else. I get the extra motivation but at the end of the day one should not need anyone else to motivate them, that can backfire.
January 26th, 2026 at 8:33 am
Who ever doesn’t think this is just good football fun just stop tuning in.
January 26th, 2026 at 8:51 am
I’ll take Mayfield over the pouters and bench cryers any day. Didn’t have the best season last year, but so what. He’ll be back this year! If he’s not, then our draft position will be much better to take a chance on a QB. Keep the offensive line healthy, and it will be hard to stop the offense once again.
January 26th, 2026 at 9:01 am
Mike,
Just a reminder that Baker has the highest career playoff passer rating at 105.9. that’s higher than Mahomes, Barr Starr, Kurt Warner, Josh Allen, Matter Stafford and Joe Montana. When you have to come back from a deficit late in game every single week, you are sure to have some backbreaking turnovers at some point. That’s only partly on Baker, how about the team keep a damn lead going into the 4th (Todd’s fault)
January 26th, 2026 at 9:03 am
The Browns had every right to make the decision to try to move on from Baker and to pursue Deshaun Watson as his replacement. They have the right to continue making bad decisions, it’s what they’ve been doing for the last 25 years. Baker doesn’t have to like it. He has every right to feel that the Browns, especially Stefanski, should have had more appreciation for what he was able to accomplish in Cleveland and to let them know about it. The stupid take of the Atlanta sports writer, citing Baker and Watson as co-failures and subsequently the reason for Stefanski’s failure in Cleveland, is what prompted Baker to lash out. Baker’s not the type of person to just turn the other cheek when someone says something about him that is unfair or inaccurate.
January 26th, 2026 at 9:11 am
Mayfield will be back!!
January 26th, 2026 at 9:14 am
Who is King????
Same guy who makes excuses for Bowles and Blames the QB..
King is a BUM
January 26th, 2026 at 10:27 am
Bowles should have sat Mayfield down if he and/or Grizz suspected he was hurt (I am going to guess that they did) and yeah, Jason Licht is at fault here too. Todd and Grizz obviously thought Trask was not back up material and judging that the only gig Trask could land was being the #4 qb with the ATL, only signed when Penix was put on IR. Licht responds by bringing in a washed up Teddy Bridgewater. This was a total fail by all involved. BTW, the kid the Bucs gave an injury settlement to: Michael Pratt, signed with the St Louis Battlehawks of the UFL. Curious to see how he plays. He could not have been worse than Bridgewater. Licht should have had a better backup plan than Bridgewater and he also gets a fail on wasting a 2nd round pick on Trask.
January 26th, 2026 at 10:32 am
Oscar, good take. It seems like that dude for the TJC, Orlando L, is getting a pass on all of this. If some hack like Bayless or Finebaum said this, the whole world would be calling these guys out. Why is this? Even good journalists make mistakes but most walk them back or even apologize, this guy is simply allowed to be a hack. Why?
January 26th, 2026 at 10:34 am
Mayfield is a man-child. One would of thought that by now he would have matured. It’s the same attitude that allows him to throw interceptions with the game on the line. Yeah, yeah, it’s the same attitude that allows him to play like a maniac, but his record speaks for itself.
January 26th, 2026 at 10:35 am
I swear a lot of you don’t actually watch full games or have short memories.
Baker was not good last half of the year, I wouldn’t argue that. I would argue about how much that contributed to the W/L column. Sure he could have played mistake free hero ball like early in the year and got us a couple more wins, but this isn’t a hero ball game, it’s a team game!
Jameis constantly deflated the team with his picks. Tom and Lefty were nearly impossible to watch with their 18 ppg that clearly hurt the team in games cause Tom wasn’t mad a statue who couldn’t take a hit and Lefty was beyond awful.
At very few times watching games was I able to get upset at Baker for killing the team. He shouldn’t have been in those positions in the first place but a conservative HC and a terrible defense never gave the guy a break.
You think Evans and the team were mad at Baker about the AtL INT where he had a miscommunication with Mike? Nope, as evidenced by Evans losing it about 3rd and 28 they were mad at the D.
League leading turnover machine Darnold (who played great last night) is going to the Super Bowl.
January 26th, 2026 at 11:19 am
Lmao at the krewe having to use interceptions thrown to draw parallels between Darnold & Mayfield.
How about this,
Jaxson Smith-Njigba caught 119 passes on a 163 targets, for 1,793 yards and 10 scores
Darnold tied 8th best completion % completing 67.7% of his passes. 6 of 17 games completing 70% of his passes
Emeka Egbuka was targeted 127 and caught 63 passes for 938 yards and 6 TDs
Baker Mayfield finished 27th, completing 63.2% of his passes.
Baker fans are stupid lol
January 26th, 2026 at 11:22 am
“You think Evans and the team were mad at Baker about the AtL INT where he had a miscommunication with Mike?”
Again, the logic is holier than the pope mobile.
You think an offensive player is okay with a scoring opportunity being wasted?
Y’all keep on with this Mr.Fantastic reaches
Now, offensive players don’t care about turnover? You kidding me? 😂
January 26th, 2026 at 11:42 am
So T.J. Who’s you Mama, why did Baker SUCK the last half of this past regular season?
January 26th, 2026 at 12:07 pm
The memory bank is not infallible, but it recalls reports from Mayfield’s last season in Cleveland. His play was hampered by injuries, and the coach and front office had already decided to move on from him for that and, I believe, an emotional dislike of him for reasons never really articulated. In some of the final games of the season, one –I believe– against Green Bay. The quarterback was reported as feeling that the coach’s personnel and play-calling decisions were intended to make him vulnerable to sacks and incompetent, not to mention a lot sorer. This may be paranoid, but the sacks were a fact. The notion of Cleveland’s management trying to make a popular player look bad before dumping him is hardly far-fetched considering the rest of the trashing of Baker narrative. I think he has a right to feel hurt and has been very self-conained about the whole situation. And, oh yes, the next time he played Green Bay, he pitched a perfect game at Lambeau.