DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Baker Comparisons 3

It worked pretty well, I think. They had 2 turnovers negated while trying to force the comeback (AJ Brown's fumble-->TD and the INT negated by penalty). Add that to the 2 3rd down drops by our WRs and Baker's fumble, and I'd say the conservatism worked well...everything seemed to go the Titans way and they still lost.

Did you post those comments somewhere? I must have missed it. All I saw was a hastag to something that was completely irrelevant to the post you responded-to.

He’s taken a bunch of things from previous years. We’ve run that weird counter inside handoff to
Landry a couple times too.

Lol, Bake just keeps winning games. That’s what I’m seein’.

With Baker Mayfield playing the best ball of his career, Browns could be a force come playoff time

Jake Trotter
ESPN Staff Writer

After tossing a gorgeous scoring strike to Rashard Higgins to put the Browns up 31-7, Baker Mayfield rushed to the back of the Tennessee end zone. There, he waited for Higgins to celebrate the touchdown by “walking the runway,” so he could mimic taking the photo at the end.

Cleveland’s brash quarterback officially has his swagger back. And with Mayfield playing the best ball of his NFL career, the Browns suddenly aren’t just a threat to merely snap the league’s longest postseason drought.

They’re a threat to do major damage in the postseason as well.

“We are definitely trending in the right direction,” Mayfield said Sunday after Cleveland’s 41-35 victory over the Titans, which included a startling 38-7 halftime lead. “I would be lying if I said otherwise.”

With four straight victories, the Browns most definitely are surging at the right time. No Cleveland player more so than Mayfield.

Since tossing an interception on the first drive in Week 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Mayfield has thrown 11 touchdowns without an interception. During that stretch, Mayfield ranks sixth in the NFL in QBR (72.3) and third in yards per passing attempt (8.58), trailing just Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes, despite playing three of those games in inclement weather conditions that severely hampered the passing game on both sides.

Sunday, however, Mayfield delivered perhaps the finest performance of his pro career.

Capped by the 17-yard score to Higgins, Mayfield threw four touchdowns before halftime, the most by a Browns quarterback in a first half since Otto Graham in 1951.

Mayfield actually completed 13 of his first 15 passes, with one of the incompletions coming on a drop on the opening drive by Donovan Peoples-Jones that would've given Mayfield five touchdown throws in the half.

No other NFL quarterback has tossed four touchdowns in a half this season. Mayfield has now accomplished the feat twice, becoming the first Cleveland quarterback since Brian Sipe in 1983 with multiple four-touchdown passing games in a season.

“He's making plays left and right, in the pocket and out of the pocket,” said Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, who has proved to be the perfect playcalling partner for the third-year quarterback. “We had some unfortunate drops there in big moments [or] the numbers would be even better. He's playing at a high level.”

The Browns already boasted arguably the top ground game in the league, powered by the dynamic duo of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt operating behind perhaps the league’s most improved offensive line from last season.

Now they have a devastating passing attack to complement it, led by Mayfield's playmaking precision.

Mayfield's first three touchdown passes against Tennessee all came off play-action, and all three pass-catchers had at least 3 yards of separation, according to Next Gen Stats. But throughout the game, Mayfield was on the money, no matter the coverage. In fact, Mayfield had a 0% off-target percentage to go along with his season-high 334 passing yards. According to ESPN Stats & Information, that is the second-highest passing total with a 0% off-target percentage over the last five seasons.

“He was hot. He continued to stay hot,” said wide receiver Jarvis Landry. “That's a testament to a lot of hard work and to the things that he has been doing in his approach to make those throws and be as accurate as he was.”

This season started ominously for Mayfield. He threw an interception on the opening drive of the opening game, a 38-6 loss at Baltimore. He tossed a pick-six on the first series of a 38-7 defeat in Week 6 in Pittsburgh. The following week at Cincinnati, he failed to complete a single pass in the first quarter while throwing another opening-drive interception on the play on which wideout Odell Beckham Jr. suffered a season-ending knee injury.

But since then, Mayfield has bounced back in a big way. He answered with three go-ahead touchdowns in the fourth quarter to rally Cleveland past the Bengals. And now, he has quarterbacked the Browns (9-3) to the cusp of their first playoff appearance in 18 years.

“You don’t want to play the mental game too much when you're playing quarterback,” Mayfield said of the earlier struggles and subsequent criticism he faced. “Just realizing what I’m capable of. I’ve always believed in myself, and I’m not going to pay attention to B.S. Just put my head down and work. The job isn’t finished yet. Playing confident, being who I am and not looking for any approval on the outside is how I’ve always been the best at what I have done.”

Mayfield has found his best again, and has perhaps positioned the Browns to be a force come January.

https://www.espn.com/blog/cleveland-brow...me-playoff-time

Somebody posted the video of the analysis of last weeks game by that one guy whose name I can't remember. He focused on the play where Baker overthrew the WIDE OPEN WR on the slant in the end zone. Everything he said was right on. He pump faked, got his feet out of whack, was standing with feet parallel and falling backwards and sailed it over his head.

Now if you watch the pass that hit Peoples-Jones in the chest on the first drive, that he dropped. Baker did exactly the same thing.. pump faked, feet out of position and parallel to each other, falling backwards.. and this time he hit him right in the chest.

I don't think there is any grand lesson or gotcha moment in that, I just found it interesting.

Great article and truly significant data / analysis.

"But throughout the game, Mayfield was on the money, no matter the coverage. In fact, Mayfield had a 0% off-target percentage to go along with his season-high 334 passing yards. According to ESPN Stats & Information, that is the second-highest passing total with a 0% off-target percentage over the last five seasons."

I mean every week there are teams playing bad teams and bad defenses - and yet they are not doing what Baker did...

Any-hoo - came here to say that clearly I think Baker is continuing his journey and his improvement. 2 great games this season don't cement him on any pedestal .... and he will be sorely tested against Pit and Balti ... we will learn more. No doubt when he stumbles plenty of people in the media and on the board will jump on any flaw and focus on it while excluding the good / amazing he has done.

For most I think we are happy the Browns are 9-3 in a year where that was a record only the most optimistic would have hoped for - happy Baker has improved throughout the season and is currently unrecognizable from the player Freddie helped mold. I wasn't expecting play-offs and still won't worry about if we get there, who we face, if we face ... and just enjoy the ride. Hoping to go 1-0 this Monday vs the Ravens and have Baker take another step forward.

If we think people are jumping on the bandwagon now, just see what happens if Mayfield plays similarly vs Balt.

I think the pump fake confused DPJ which lead to his drop.

I have to say, a few weeks back, I was giving up on Baker. I really felt that he was going to be another flash in the pan QBs that struggle to read defenses and turn the ball over consistently. But watching the past few weeks, I now tend to believe that all the change set him back. I feel he, along with the whole offensive unit, are gelling and understanding how the offense works. I am really pumped thinking that we will actually have him be able to play in this offense for multiple years. If he keeps trending the way he is now, a full offseason actually on the field with his recievers will be huge in his development.

We have waited a long time for a consistent and stable system to be in place, lets just hope all the changing stops.

In the last game, after the pump fake and as he was pulling back to make the actual throw, a defender was crashing in from the right, right into the passing lane. I think Baker saw this and rushed that delivery to get the ball out quicker and it just ended up sailing high from an early release. The one to DPJ, the pump worked and there wasn't a second defender filling the new lane; he still had a clear lane to throw.

j/c

I'm rather neutral about Baker. I was a Darnold fan leading into the draft, and was throwing things when we drafted Mayfield. But like many others, I got swept up in his rookie success. He is what he is, a QB with both talents and warts. It appears that KS and BM are developing understanding of each other and it's showing up in games.

There is no reason to believe the Baker we see now is a finished product, but I doubt he will blossom into a Farve, Brees, or Wilson. He will be a Mayfield. And even if the final product is less than stellar, it's still better than the franchise has had in over a decade. The idea that, come the end of his rookie contract, we can simply move on from Baker to something better ignores the fact that finding someone better could take another decade.

One of Mayfield's traits is that he responds to competition, it brings out his best. Instead of looking to replace him, we should look to get someone who can challenge him. I've little doubt that Darnold will soon be looking for a new home. He's damaged goods at this point, in need of a situation to regroup and repair his once promising career. Backing up Mayfield could be good for both of them.

To this day, I still don't know why people were high on Darnold coming out of college. It seemed to all be based on potential and the fact he had only been playing QB for a few years (so the assumption was he was going to get better). But was his college tape all that good? Didn't seem like it.

Baker played in a gimmicky college system, with all of the potential issues that come with the transition from that to a pro system.

I don't remember what USC ran/runs, but Darnold had a bunch of success and exhibited more of those pro-type tools. Rosen was running a full pro-style system but like the rest, exhibited his own warts.

All the QBs coming out had their warts. None were the next Luck-type prospect.

I don't care about the other guys compared to Darnold. I was only talking about Darnold. I still don't know what he put on tape that made everyone so high on him.

And those same people are still high on him today, and he's put out a lot of bad tape since.

It's a mystery.

People are high on lots of QBs that don't pan out, is all I'm saying. It happens just about every year when there isn't a once-in-a-generation prospect.

If I remember correctly, USC ran a pro type O. I believe Mark Sanchez played in the same type of system when he was there. That and a good pro day allowed him to be picked very high.

I do not think Darnold, like Trubisky, are the brightest bulbs.

Look at the Rose Bowl game versus Penn State and S. Barkley.

It was a show.... I liked Darnold and thought that he would have done better. I think he went to a terrible situation in New York.

Exactly. Just like QB's went to bad situations here. It's nice to finally see people talking positive things about us instead of what we've had to endure in the past. Feels a little strange

I didn't watch every game but I tried to watch as many as I could. Again, I could never figure out why people thought he was good. Still can't.

And the Jets aren't doing him any favors. I agree with that. No one could succeed with that franchise.

Darnold was, by almost all accounts, a can't miss QB. The only concern was taking care of the rock, and most brushed it off as inexperience and something that was very correctable. Of course, all of that was based on a brief college career.

I think the biggest mistake by scouts was automatically looking at his young age and brief experience as upside, ie: "we haven't even scratched the surface with his talent!" They jumped the gun and said that made his ceiling higher, ignoring the possibility that maybe we had yet to see his clear shortcomings.

There's still a chance for Sam to be a solid starting QB, but it will probably take a change of scenery.

For Darnold's sake.....I hope he is saying to himself:

"Look what Tannehill did after leaving Gase. There is hope for me still."

So essentially a David Njoku of QBs?

Peripherally related to the thread: With Jalen Hurts named this weeks starter in Philly, Lincoln Riley has three of his former OU quarterbacks simultaneously starting in the NFL. Has this ever happened before?

Can anybody else recall when Baker was on the sidelines after his interception that got Odell hurt in the Gals game? He had a look on his face that I'll never forget. The camera panned on him sitting next to Landry for a several seconds. I swear after he had that moment on the bench he hasn't looked back. Maybe it meant nothing at all and I'm just crazy but he looked so down on himself and like there was so much going on in his mind at that moment. That was then where he turned the corner, I feel like. Anybody else notice that?

I really have this nightmare scenario in my head where he sits behind Roethlisberger, works the kinks out, acclimates to a stable environment, and then terrorizes our division when it's his time.

I'm the opposite. I hope he becomes the Steeler starter. We'll finally turn the tables.

I think the Jets ship him to the NFC. Conversely, I'm more afraid of Wentz being sent cross-state to the Steelers, where he can re-calibrate for 2 years. He's much more like a young Ben than Darnold, and he's at least shown flashes of good NFL QBing, unlike Darnold.

great video

Darnold is Brian Robiskie.

"Most NFL ready" is usually applied to players coming out of college from a Pro-like system, and usually they've already peaked.... the don't need to grow as much to play in this league, but they also don't have a whole lot of space before hitting their ceiling. The danger with those kinds of players is to look at them and how "ready" they are and then automatically apply the same expectation of growth you might have for a top-talent kid from a spread offense kinda team without considering the strong probability that they've already reached their potential.

Josh Rosen was deemed the most NFL ready QB coming put of College. Right now for Josh NFL could mean "not for long"

He sure made all the other 9 teams picking ahead of the Cards in the draft regret not selecting him, like he said. Not!!!

If you ever speak of that draft again, I will kindly ask you to ban yourself from your own board

No Maiava Love?

I was thinking Veikune, but sure!