DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Baker Mayfield part IV a New Hope

Cowherd is full of Swamp Gas.

At some point Cowherd will be able to charge Baker rent for living in his head.

probably the other way around lol

I think he means Cowherd will charge Baker rent because Baker is living in his head.

Exactly

On the flip side there seem to be a lot of Browns fans who let Cowherd live rent free in their minds.

There's this small part of me that thinks Cowherd knows Baker's mentality is to excel when he's perceived as the underdog, so all this deprecation will serve to propel Mayfield to a higher level. After all, Baker did him a HUGE favor by appearing on his show. Then the other 99% of me says, "Nah."

I think Cowherd understands that this whole him v Baker stupidity has hit critical mass and it's just easy clicks and site traffic for him.

j/c:


Those alien emojis, though.

Kiser matched those picks in 2 games.

I have a bromance for Russell Wilson. I would be all about trading for him if Baker hadn't played so well last year and will be going into his second season in the same offense.

Feels good to say that I want to stick with him. He has timing with his receivers and no reason to screw that up. Feels good to say let's stick with what we have!

Getting to play in the same offense two years in a row, with the same coaches, means he will be able to prove his worth. I doubted him, but he made me rethink it, after the second half of the season. If he improves from where he left off, he could become one of the best in the league.

Baker is on a good track. As for improving, you always expect to see some improvement out of a young player, but as a cautionary note, he was playing pretty darn good football as last season wound down. Any improvements are going to be minimal, or maybe I should say won't be major improvements you or I can really see. It's not like his completion percentage is going to jump to 75% or he throws 70 td passes.

Baker is our guy.

I agree. No doubt that being in the same system will breed confidence on offense.

The obvious improvements should, or need to show up on defense. Those we should be able to see. It probably won't be as obvious on offense.

Mahomes is the only quarterback I'd consider over Baker. But... I'm still taking Baker. He's the one. He was always the one.

Same thoughts here. Plus, from the head coach on down, seems the hunger and work ethic are real.

This is crazy.

Did you expect anything less from James Mayfield aka devicedawg?

I pretty much feel the same way. I wanted us to take Baker, I completely sold myself on him in his rookie year. I couldn't believe what Freddy did to him and thought we had ruined another QB... Then he came back strong last year and it looks like everything clicked.

Taking nothing from Mahomes, Brady, and a few others... I would take Baker over any of them. BUT this is mostly because I'm so personally invested at this point.

Nothing wrong with wanting to keep your own guy, especially if he is good enough.

I mean what quarterback not named Mahomes are you taking over Baker?

Shouldn't be many if any.

Maybe Tom Brady wins you a super bowl but we're talking 5, 10 even 15 years down the road. Brady won't be playing.

Mahomes is about it. Maybe you take a chance on Herbert or Burrow.

Baker is the best QB from the 2018 draft.

Watson has as many playoff wins as Baker and Baker has a better arm.

Baker is still incredibly accurate.

Ok, I would give anyone 5 QBs tops. You could negotiate your way around justifying 5 quarterbacks. Maybe Mahomes, Wilson, Rodgers, Brady.... if you name more than 5 then you're underrating Baker.

I know there are still some people who believe Baker is an "average" quarterback. FYI, he's not. That's all I'm saying.

DeShaun Watson and Josh Allen are both clearly better as well. I would probably take Justin Herbert and Kyler Murray over him too.

That is not an indictment of Baker. All those guy are really good. We have something like the ninth or tenth best QB in the league. That’s really good!

I'm not sure I'd pull the trigger, but with the Wilson situation I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't take a good, long look at a Baker-Wilson swap.

If it was a straight up swap a team would be crazy not to do it.

Well, it wouldn't be... so there's that. :-p

There's also the age, current $$$ ramifications, and why Wilson is even *maybe* available in the first place to consider. With Baker improving with franchise stability, there's even the argument that Baker could surpass Wilson.

The best thing you could hope for Baker Mayfield to become is something like Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson is already a finished product and we know he is great. That isn’t to say that Baker won’t continue to get better but it’s not a sure thing.

clearly is debateable.

Herbert had a similar rookie year to baker
Allen has gotten better every year. Baker's overall stats are mostly better

Agreed. I feel Baker still has upside. This past season was his first in KS system. He is still learning it. There's a good chance Baker will get even better. Even though Baker is entering his 4th season he is not a finished product due to all the regime changes. JMO

Obviously. But to say you’d only take Mahomes over Baker when there are several clearly better options is pretty crazy. If there was a fantasy draft among the teams in the NFL for the upcoming season no one would take Baker over Mahomes, Brady, Wilson, Mahomes, Watson, Allen, or Rodgers. Baker is in a group with a bunch of guys below that tier. Like I said, that’s good!

Baker better freaking get paid more than Dak Prescott. That’s all I know.

Pay the man. We got our guy. Get it done. He showed this year in a freaking pandemic that in a right system and a coach worth of damn, we actually haven’t seen his ceiling yet.

And if we got to 11-5 before seeing him peak? damn son....

Prescott had way more leverage than Baker currently has (he has also been way better than Baker has been). Dak was due to get franchised again which basically meant he was going to be a free agent after the 2021 season. They had to lock him up at his price. Baker has one more year one his rookie deal, his fifth year option, and two years of the franchise tag (if it comes to that).

Determining whether to pay Baker now when he’ll likely sign for much cheaper or waiting is a huge decision the front office has to make. Two teams just traded their QBs after signing them to giant extensions when it looked like they were going to be great.

I dunno about way better.

Dak has had superior talent long overall, plus the benefit of playing in a trash division.

I get your point about leverage, however. Just for the sake of the cap, and that I’m not comfortable playing around with paying QBs, I just want us to get it done sooner than later. Especially since it’s only gonna get more expensive.

The good thing about it is that the FO have at least one more year to look at Baker before making such a decision. Everyone has their own opinion regarding Baker. This coming season will go a very long way in creating a clearer picture moving forward.

I'm of the opinion that he'll only get better. Every indication seems to be that working with Stefanski created an atmosphere of improvement on the part of many of our players and continuity moving forward can only be beneficial in regards to a continuation of that process.

j/c:

Baker did it in Cleveland, with a new coaching staff, and his top receiver was Jarvis Landry most of the season. That gets him some bonus points from me.

I'm not sure where I'd rank him, but he's the only that has proven he could do it here.

Maybe those others could, too, but imagining Josh Allen's first season with Hue as his HC is a thing of nightmares. Tom Brady threw 1 completion his rookie year and spent 19 seasons with the same HC. Aaron Rodgers sat his first 3 years.

All those other guys have/had some pretty dominant receivers. T. Hill and Kelce; Godwin, Evans, Gronk/Brate; Metcalf, Lockett; Hopkins (admittedly not last season), Fuller; Diggs. They also had some stability around them, pretty sure they all had the same HC their first 3 seasons at least.

And if he were to win back to back Super Bowls, you would probably say the same thing. I get it, I just don't agree. AND I absolutely don't agree that Josh Allen or Dak are better than him, they are good but I don't see better.

If he were to win back to back Super Bowls it would mean he improved greatly. I wouldn’t put Dak above Baker at this point because of his injury.

When considering QB rankings the only thing I am talking about is how good a guy is right now. Projections are fun but I am taking the sure thing every time. No matter what you think of Baker, the guys I have named above (except Herbert and Allen) have a long track record of success. Baker had a great rookie season, then was terrible for a season and a half, and then got good again for the second half of the 2020 season.

Again, I love Baker. I do not want to get rid of him. It is not an indictment of him to say there are better players.

Yeah, must have been nice to be a 2018 QB who has had the same HC/OC combination since then.

I find it interesting that Lamar Jackson isn't really in any of these conversations. Not that I think he should be, but I just thought I'd find someone bringing him up.