CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Baker Mayfield will be announced as the Browns' starter on Monday after coach Hue Jackson meets with the quarterbacks to tell them first.
He's giving the players the weekend off after Thursday night's come-from-behind 21-17 victory over the Jets, and when they reconvene on Monday to prepare for Oakland, he'll turn the reins over to his No. 1 overall pick.
"I think that you guys all feel good about where things are headed, so let's just wait and see and go from there,'' Jackson said on a conference call.
Jackson is also being respectful of Taylor, who was knocked out of the game with a concussion, his third in the past 13 months. Before he left with 1:42 left in the first half, he completed only four of 14 attempts for 19 yards. Still, he was credited with the victory.
"The most important thing is let's just see where he's at physically first and foremost,'' he said. "There have been some other concussions. We'll see what's best for him first and foremost and then where all of this fits as we move forward."
Jackson said it wasn't Taylor's fault that he was under siege the entire first half, particularly vulnerable to blitzing off the edge.
"He did [face more pressure],'' said Jackson. "There were some adjustments that we made on the sideline to fix some things that we weren't doing correctly. We were able to work those things out. That was unfair because those are some of the things that Tyrod had to deal with.''
Jackson's film study Friday was the most gratifying day-after he's had since he's been here.
"It was as good as I thought live,'' he said. "(Mayfield) made some tremendous throws. Obviously, he was able to move the team. Played with some rhythm. Got the ball into the playmakers' hands and gave them chances to make plays. There are some things that he has to clean up obviously.
"We can't have the ball out on the ground. There are some progression things that we'll work through. Overall for his first game out under the lights in that environment in that situation, he handled all of that extremely well and played well."
Did he have a favorite throw or two?
"I had quite a few of them,'' he said. "Too many to talk about (laughter)."
Jackson acknowledged that Mayfield pulled off the outing -- including completing 74 percent of his passes -- despite having virtually no reps with the starters during practice. He does get extra time after practice to run his own team's offense instead of the scout team, but not with the starters.
"That even makes it more impressive what he did last night,'' said Jackson. "It means that he's doing the extra studying. It means that he is really engaged offensively with what we are trying to do and how we are trying to do it.''
Having said that, Mayfield threw a lot to Rashard Higgins and Antonio Callaway in camp because they worked a lot with the second team.
"Maybe not as much to Jarvis Landry, but the other guys he's thrown the ball to,'' he said. "Again, it's impressive what he did last night. There's no way around that. It was a short week, not a lot of practice time and you'd think he took all of the reps.''
All of that will change next week when Mayfield gets all the reps in preparation for the Raiders.
"I love the nine and 10-day window,'' said Jackson. "It just gives us an opportunity as a team to get better as we get ready to head out west to go play a huge game for us.''
He said Mayfield discovered the fast pace of the game and "that there's a rhythm that you have to get an offensive team into. That any point that you can score are good points, whether it's field goals - everybody wants touchdowns. How important taking care of the football is in the National Football League and how important it is to be pinpoint accurate.''
But the confidence in Mayfield is nothing new.
"To a man, everybody understands who Baker is and what he brings to the team, just like I think everybody understood what Tyrod Taylor was and what he brought to the team,'' said Jackson. "Obviously, Baker nailed his last night.''
He'll get plenty more where that came from.