Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield just turned up the heat on his former head coach. Mayfield and Kevin Stefanski spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons together with the Cleveland Browns. It was a stint that started with promise but ended with frustration for Mayfield. But now, with the Atlanta Falcons hiring Stefanski as their new HC, the former Browns coach is walking straight into the NFC South. That means he will face Mayfield twice every season, and the QB seems more than ready for that faceoff.

“Failed is quite the reach pal,” Baker Mayfield wrote in the caption of his X post. “Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach.”

Baker Mayfield suggested that, in the end, Kevin Stefanski treated his QB as if he meant nothing to the team. As such, Mayfield’s message now sounded less like trash talk and more like a warning shot to his former HC. But Mayfield also wrote that, while quoting a post from Falcons reporter D. Orlando Ledbetter, which clearly struck a nerve.

“#Falcons’ Kevin Stefanski had a dumpster fire at quarterback in Cleveland – Baker Mayfield and Deshaun Watson failed, which started a chain reaction to 11 other starters,” Ledbetter wrote in his X post. “QB Shedeur Sanders closed out last season with seven starts.”

Ledbetter’s point was simple: Kevin Stefanski’s time in Cleveland turned into a revolving door at quarterback. But Mayfield sees his own story very differently. When the Browns drafted him first overall in 2018 out of Oklahoma, Stefanski wasn’t even there. Stefanski arrived in 2020 as the new head coach, and that first season together actually worked.

With Mayfield under center, the Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 48-37 in the 2020 Wild Card round, giving the franchise its first postseason win in 26 years. The Browns’ playoff run ended a week later with a narrow 22-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. But it still felt like Cleveland had turned a corner with Mayfield finishing the season with more than 4,000 yards, 30 touchdowns, and just nine interceptions. But after that, things fell apart quickly for Mayfield in Cleveland. 

As Mayfield now pointed out, despite being the former No. 1 pick and the QB who helped drag the Browns back into relevance, he felt the team pushed him out like trash. Cleveland even paid more than $10 million of Mayfield’s salary in 2021 just to trade him and accept a Day 3 draft pick in return. Now, in a twist of irony, the Browns have also moved on from Kevin Stefanski after he wrapped up a 5-12 season with the team.

Meanwhile, Baker Mayfield has done his best to keep things professional in Tampa Bay. Still, Mayfield has always had a brash edge to his personality that has rubbed some people the wrong way. And with this latest shot at Stefanski, he probably crossed a line again. But it also feels like this came from Mayfield due to a long-simmering grudge against Stefanski.

What led Kevin Stefanski to lose his faith in Baker Mayfield?

In 2021, Baker Mayfield tried to grind it out while playing through a torn labrum, but due to the injury, his performance took a clear hit. In that season, he recorded 3,010 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions in 14 games with the Browns. Tension started to show in Cleveland as Mayfield talked about needing better protection schemes, as Kevin Stefanski’s play-calling seemed to put his QB in constant pressure situations. 

Back then, Jason Lloyd of The Athletic painted a messy behind-the-scenes picture between Mayfield and Stefanski. He reported that the situation had turned into “a quarterback who didn’t trust his coach and a coach who didn’t trust his quarterback,” and that was the beginning of the end in Mayfield and Stefanski’s relationship.

Lloyd also reported that many people inside the building viewed Mayfield as childish, immature, and difficult to coach. Once that narrative took hold, things unraveled quickly for Mayfield. Stefanski pushed for a massive move in Cleveland, trading for QB Deshaun Watson before shipping Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers in July 2022. 

Cleveland then handed Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million contract. But on the field, that gamble has been a disaster as Watson recorded just 3,365 yards, 19 TDS, and 12 INTs in 19 games. Off the field, Watson was also accused of more than 20 counts of sexual misconduct, which only made Stefanski’s decision look worse in hindsight. 

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Since Mayfield’s trade then, Stefanski and the Browns cycled through several QBs. Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders are just a few names from the recent carousel, and none of them stuck as the starting QB in Cleveland. The Browns finished the 2025 season with Shedeur as the starter, and he went 3-4 in seven starts. 

Meanwhile, Baker Mayfield’s own journey wasn’t smooth either, as he struggled in Carolina and had a short stint with the Los Angeles Rams. Then Tampa Bay gave him a real chance in 2023 with a $8.5 million contract for one year. Since then, Mayfield has led the Bucs to the playoffs in 2023 with a 9-8 record, then again in 2024 at 10-7. The 2025 season ended at 8-9 and cost the Bucs the NFC South, but the team has remained competitive with Mayfield at the helm.

But now, with Kevin Stefanski entering the same NFC South, Mayfield has made one thing clear: those Falcons-Buccaneers games won’t just be about standings in the next season.