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Baker Mayfield: Fire The Cannons

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One guy keeps coming to my mind when comparing 26 year old Baker to no other than... 26 year old Drew Brees.

Brees: 30-28, 80 TD, 53 Int, 12,348 Yds, 62% Comp, 6.8 Y/A, 84.9 Rtg

Baker: 28-27, 85 TDs, 49 Int, 13,281 Yds, 62% Comp, 7.5 Y/A, 89.4 Rtg

Root for the breakup all you want, his best play is still ahead, and if last season proved anything... you want that healthy Baker leading your team more than 20 others.

Saints will be glad to have history repeat itself with acquiring Baker.

Context is king.

The NFL has altered the rules and slanted things so favorably toward passing offenses since 2005 that it's practically a different sport.

Personally, I think it's disingenuous to say Brees' significant improvement after age 26 is primarily a result of more experience or natural development or whatever you're suggesting.

It's more realistic IMO to say that Brees' numbers exploded for three reasons.

1. Brees went from playing 95% of his games outdoors to more than half of his games indoors (all home games + 1 game a year at Atlanta). Drew for his career has a 104.6 QB rating indoors vs. 92.5 QB rating outdoors.

2. Brees went from the notoriously conservative Marty Schottenheimer as his head coach in San Diego to one of the greatest offensive minds of all time in Sean Payton.

3. Most important of all, Brees' individual statistical explosion just so happened to coincide with NFL passing offenses league wide exploding. Brees didn't just magically get 30% better than he was as he aged. He was always really good + he started playing indoors + he got paired up with a Hall of Fame offensive coach + (and most important) passing simply got exponentially easier around the league as his career went on.

-Baker's playing in a bad weather city, that isn't changing if he stays in Cleveland.

-Baker's playing under one of the more highly regarded young offensive minds in the league, that isn't changing anytime soon if he stays in Cleveland.

-Baker's already playing in the most pass friendly era in NFL history. It seems highly unlikely the game is going to fundamentally change to where passing becomes tremendously easier than it already is right now.

Here are some numbers to chew on...

League averages in 2005: 59.5 completion %, 6.8 yards per attempt, 203.5 yards per game, 80.1 QB rating
League averages in 2021: 65.4 completion %, 7.3 yards per attempt, 237.7 yards per game, 92.2 QB rating

Brees' career numbers in 2005 when he was 26 still slotted him as a well above league average QB under that set of rules and how the game was played. Brees ranked 10th in the league in passer rating in 2005.

Baker's numbers at age 26 are a notch below the league average.

Can he get better? Maybe/probably/hopefully.

Is it realistic to expect Brees' level improvement given what we know about the how and why Brees' numbers improved as much as they did? I don't think so.
 
Damn we should've drafted Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen, that way we wouldn't be giving a flying fuck about being tricked into finally having a good QB, and we'd be talking QB prospects.
 
Had the Browns drafted Josh Rosen, they might have Joe Burrow or Justin Herbert right now :chuckle:
Joey Burrow, the same guy that Baker clowned a few weeks ago. Sheesh.

Just say Herbert. And even then, his California weather gunslinging ass wouldn't be copycatting that off the shores of Lake Erie, considering Baker and Brees comparison.

No QB is safe here. Bernie wasn't even that good. We just loved him.
 
Joey Burrow, the same guy that Baker clowned a few weeks ago. Sheesh.

Just say Herbert. And even then, his California weather gunslinging ass wouldn't be copycatting that off the shores of Lake Erie, considering Baker and Brees comparison.

No QB is safe here. Bernie wasn't even that good. We just loved him.

Do you really want to die on the "I'd rather have Baker Mayfield than Joe Burrow" hill? C'mon now.
 
Do you really want to die on the "I'd rather have Baker Mayfield than Joe Burrow" hill? C'mon now.
Doesn't even matter bro, you make this section pretty hard to be around with your fact checks.

Bottom line, we are married to what we once thought would be the franchise. I'm not trying to 'suck for Luck', because when we have the #1 overall, there's no Herbert around.

I'll ride and die on the hill, but still be a Browns fan, and accept whatever DeShone Kizer they throw at me.
 
Doesn't even matter bro, you make this section pretty hard to be around with your fact checks.

Bottom line, we are married to what we once thought would be the franchise. I'm not trying to 'suck for Luck', because when we have the #1 overall, there's no Herbert around.

I'll ride and die on the hill, but still be a Browns fan, and accept whatever DeShone Kizer they throw at me.

Say something silly, expect to get a response pointing out the silliness. That's how message boards work, right? There's always the ignore feature if it actually bothers you that much.

And considering he only has one year left on his contract, the Browns are decidedly NOT married to Baker Mayfield. He might not even be the QB of this franchise in four months.

And believe me, 0.0% of me wants this guy to do poorly. I'm rooting for Mayfield to play his absolute best every single week as long he's here. I'd love nothing more than for him to play better so we don't have to have these "debates" (they're becoming less debatable sadly) every week.

He's just given all of us very little reason to expect it to turn around. Pointing that out apparently makes people upset, but sometimes the truth hurts.
 
When Baker was healthy, just last year, everyone's favorite QBR stat, yeah, he was #10. And that's about where I expect him to be until Brady, Rodgers move on. Then maybe he can jump to 7-8.

Baker's playoff QBR was 4 points lower than Tom Brady.

Well, when he wasn't battling a torn labrum, fractured bone in shoulder, heel bruise, some knee twists, a thigh bruise, beat up offensive line throughout hindering his play, remember he went out there with no tackles? He went out there with no Chubb, his WR core is beat up, one guy is washed up (at the moment washed up) and ditched to Cali. He played great enough to beat the Chiefs, that loss is on the Chubb fumble and punter dicking around. He managed his offense to score 42 and no turnovers and lose. That was the only time in history.

This is all the makings of bad team play, and leads to inconsistent QB play.

Win vs Baltimore and alot of the season is forgotten in my opinion and then go game by game after the bye week.
 
Say something silly, expect to get a response pointing out the silliness. That's how message boards work, right? There's always the ignore feature if it actually bothers you that much.

And considering he only has one year left on his contract, the Browns are decidedly NOT married to Baker Mayfield. He might not even be the QB of this franchise in four months.

And believe me, 0.0% of me wants this guy to do poorly. I'm rooting for Mayfield to play his absolute best every single week as long he's here. I'd love nothing more than for him to play better so we don't have to have these "debates" (they're becoming less debatable sadly) every week.

He's just given all of us very little reason to expect it to turn around. Pointing that out apparently makes people upset, but sometimes the truth hurts.
 
Do you really want to die on the "I'd rather have Baker Mayfield than Joe Burrow" hill? C'mon now.
Im putting $50 dollars down at the end of their careers Baker has a better career. Primarily because burrow is going to be pulp by the end of his rookie contract
 

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