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Baker Mayfield: Fire The Cannons

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I read this and looked up and immediately saw Kyler Murray. That dude is fucking small.

But he’s so quick and decisive. Drew Brees is short but he’s so cerebral. Baker looks about as athletic as Peyton Manning if Peyton Manning was 6 feet tall. He’s just not very quick and he looks so limited out there. In a way he always looks hurt because you can see the clear drop off in athleticism when you compare him to other QB’s.

Being short isn’t the problem.

Being short and slow isn’t the problem.

Being short and slow and scared isn’t the problem.

Being short, slow, scared *and* lacking football IQ is Baker’s multi-layered problem.

A QB just isn’t going to consistently succeed at a high level with all of those things working against him at the same time.

Baker’s not going to get any taller and he’s not going to get any more athletic, so he really only has two paths forward.

1. Dramatically improve his ability to read coverages and diagnose pre and post snap reads.

2. Figure out how to manipulate a dirty pocket either via stepping up or sliding side-to-side with his eyes still downfield.

I’m skeptical he’ll ever be able to do No. 2 at a high level because that doesn’t really feel like something that you can develop with experience. It feels like more of an instinct thing that you naturally have and can sharpen over time or you just don’t have and can’t get.

And unfortunately for Mayfield, I just don’t think the Browns are going to be in a position to see if multiple years of experience can help get No. 1 to an acceptably high level.
 
I really think there's something to being able to see over your linemen and throw from within the pocket.

I don't think Baker has the size, or the natural feel for the game, to ever do that successfully.

I also think that, if a lot of your passes are on roll-outs and play action, your time to throw is going to be higher.

Baker will feel more comfortable with a moving pocket and a top-notch offensive line, just like every other undersized passer who came before him.

I think back to when the Bills qualified for the playoffs in 1999 with Flutie, then in the playoff game they switched to Rob Johnson with concerns that they couldn't use the entire playbook. Incidently, our offensive coordinator was in that Bills quarterback room.

I see the whole Mayfield situation as grey area in a world that prefers the brightest whites and darkest blacks. He is coming off his worst two game stretch, now the media has turned on him. He is about to face off with some weaker defenses, so I'm getting ready for the pendulum to swing back.

He isn't getting worse as much as the league has caught on to him. It's time for him to read the defense much better and play like a veteran.
 
We always seem to give less chances on QBs. One bad game and talk about having a new qb. Let’s see how Baker bounces back. Just as coach said, we are going to lose games. But when we do, can we bounce back? It really is about how do we respond including Baker.
 
In his career, how many good games has Baker had against good teams?

I think he had some pretty good games against the Chiefs and Ravens in 2018, Ravens and Bills in 2019.

Part of the issue is the definition of a good team. I think there are some pretty decent teams he has beaten but falls victim to the "Browns syndrome". As soon as we beat someone, they're no longer considered 'good' if they were before.
 
We always seem to give less chances on QBs. One bad game and talk about having a new qb. Let’s see how Baker bounces back. Just as coach said, we are going to lose games. But when we do, can we bounce back? It really is about how do we respond including Baker.

I don’t think many people (a few louder ones aside) are suggesting Baker should be benched right now. He's the best option the Browns have at this particular moment.

I think what most of us are justifiably wondering is if his flaws are actually fixable and if the Browns can afford to wait on him to figure things out when they appear to have a win now offense and win now coaching staff otherwise.
 
I don’t think many people (a few louder ones aside) are suggesting Baker should be benched right now. He's the best option the Browns have at this particular moment.

I think what most of us are justifiably wondering is if his flaws are actually fixable and if the Browns can afford to wait on him to figure things out when they appear to have a win now offense and win now coaching staff otherwise.

I’m one of the louder ones, so I’ll clarify my stance.

We have the easiest remaining schedule of any team in the league. There’s absolutely no excuse for this team not to be over 500 to end the season. Whether that means playoffs or not, tbh, I don’t care. No excuse not be over 500.

But if Baker keeps playing like shit, and we go below 500 with enough weeks to get 9? Baker is donezo. Bench him.
 
I think what most of us are justifiably wondering is if his flaws are actually fixable and if the Browns can afford to wait on him to figure things out when they appear to have a win now offense and win now coaching staff otherwise.

I think they are but they're going to require him to put in a lot of extra work and unfortunately, this weird COVID season is filled to the brim with additional distractions.

He obviously came into this season in better shape than he did last year. It's apparent to me he put in the time on the physical front. Now he needs to put in the time on the mental part and that's a tougher undertaking. He has seemed averse to asking for help. He needs to check that ego at the door, call Russel Wilson up and find out who he trains with in the off-season. The difference from good to great is the extra work. Right now, I would just take the difference from below average to average.
 
I think he had some pretty good games against the Chiefs and Ravens in 2018, Ravens and Bills in 2019.

Part of the issue is the definition of a good team. I think there are some pretty decent teams he has beaten but falls victim to the "Browns syndrome". As soon as we beat someone, they're no longer considered 'good' if they were before.

The difference between now and that week 17 Ravens game is staggering. Even though we lost that game, his ability to stand in the pocket and lead us down the field had me so fired up for the future. I hope he can get his head right. I really think most of his issues are stemming from between the ears.
 
I think they are but they're going to require him to put in a lot of extra work and unfortunately, this weird COVID season is filled to the brim with additional distractions.

He obviously came into this season in better shape than he did last year. It's apparent to me he put in the time on the physical front. Now he needs to put in the time on the mental part and that's a tougher undertaking. He has seemed averse to asking for help. He needs to check that ego at the door, call Russel Wilson up and find out who he trains with in the off-season. The difference from good to great is the extra work. Right now, I would just take the difference from below average to average.

Why was he out of shape coming into last season?
 
I think he had some pretty good games against the Chiefs and Ravens in 2018, Ravens and Bills in 2019.

Part of the issue is the definition of a good team. I think there are some pretty decent teams he has beaten but falls victim to the "Browns syndrome". As soon as we beat someone, they're no longer considered 'good' if they were before.

I think the bigger issue is Baker Mayfield has barely had a handful of good games against good teams. He was really feeling himself after his rookie year ended. Talked shit directly at Hue Jackson. Talked shit about Duke Johnson and his contract. Talked shit at Rex Ryan when he rightfully called out his flaws. Talked shit at the local media for rightfully questioning his play. All of this while proving nothing. His mouth wrote a lot of checks. He always tries to play the back against the wall card and I think the people aren't buying that bullshit anymore. We just want to see him play well and win. We don't need all the extra shit.

I do remember several posters pointing out that he really didn't prove anything against good competition his rookie year. Then for no reason at all his shows up in his second year out of shape.

He's just not a leader. You can't take a QB #1 overall and have him end up not being one of the leaders of your team. Now he's hot people questioning his work ethic which a lot of that he brought on himself. He can still come out of this as our guy but the deck is being stacked against him.
 
The difference between now and that week 17 Ravens game is staggering. Even though we lost that game, his ability to stand in the pocket and lead us down the field had me so fired up for the future. I hope he can get his head right. I really think most of his issues are stemming from between the ears.

Me too. I think defenses figured him out and he has lost confidence. I think @CBBI summarized it pretty well. It's a compound issue that I have a hard time seeing him fixing. But we'll see. As horrific as that L was, we've gotta move forward onto the Bengals. I'll be pretty happy if he has just a decent game and we improve to 5-2 overall.
 
I think the bigger issue is Baker Mayfield has barely had a handful of good games against good teams. He was really feeling himself after his rookie year ended. Talked shit directly at Hue Jackson. Talked shit about Duke Johnson and his contract. Talked shit at Rex Ryan when he rightfully called out his flaws. Talked shit at the local media for rightfully questioning his play. All of this while proving nothing. His mouth wrote a lot of checks. He always tries to play the back against the wall card and I think the people aren't buying that bullshit anymore. We just want to see him play well and win. We don't need all the extra shit.

I do remember several posters pointing out that he really didn't prove anything against good competition his rookie year. Then for no reason at all his shows up in his second year out of shape.

He's just not a leader. You can't take a QB #1 overall and have him end up not being one of the leaders of your team. Now he's hot people questioning his work ethic which a lot of that he brought on himself. He can still come out of this as our guy but the deck is being stacked against him.

Yeah, he made no friends with a bunch of that stuff early on. For me it's about moving forward. I think this year he has been better about everything more than in the past. I'm personally okay with how he has been this year - it's cool to have a little bit of an edge. He just needs to improve and overcome the mental aspect of the game while the clock is running - the rest will take care of itself.
 
Herein lies the issue that will define Baker’s career IMO. We saw some defenses make the adjustment last year after being successful down-the-field his rookie year. Until he proves that he can make teams pay consistently on the short and intermediate routes, teams will keep help over the top and make him beat them by competing a high percentage of passes without making bad decisions.

The running game has allowed them to be really conservative in general with the passing game, but that won’t be the case all year (potentially starting this week). It will be interesting to see how he responds this season when the game is on his shoulders and he has to make plays for the team to win. Didn’t look so good against the Ravens, but I’m not going to solely judge him off that one game.

Said the above prior to the Colts game and it’ll ring true until Baker makes big strides. Teams will just look to keep him in the pocket, take away options around the hashes and the middle-of-the-field, and keep a safety over-the-top. Until he beats that type of a scheme/game plan, there’s no reason for defenses to do anything different.
 
Why was he out of shape coming into last season?

Freddie told him to focus on his life and to get away from football in the off-season. That coupled with getting married that summer, it just felt like he wasn't prepared mentally or physically.
 

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