FORT WORTH, Texas — Baker Mayfield will never live down that he was drafted six slots ahead of Josh Allen, and 31 in front of Lamar Jackson.
It’s not quite the level of Mitch Tribusky going No. 2 and Patrick Mahomes 10th in the 2017 NFL draft, but Baker at No. 1 in 2018 will always leave a mark.
The former Oklahoma quarterback and native of Austin is all grown up at 28, and on his fourth team in his sixth NFL season.
“The last couple of years for me haven’t gone necessarily the way I drew them out,” Mayfield said Wednesday. “But I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason.”
The Heisman Trophy winner was on a Zoom call with a few reporters to talk about football, and his upcoming appearance at the American Century Classic golf tournament, which is scheduled for Lake Tahoe on July 14-16.
Between his NFL earnings and endorsement deals, he should be set for life. This is not about that; this is about being good at the thing he has done since he can remember.
Nothing will change, or lessen, what Mayfield accomplished at Oklahoma. And none of that does a thing in the NFL.
The NFL is littered with Baker Mayfields; brilliant ex-college players who can’t duplicate that level of success in pro football. The reasons are endless.
When evaluating Mayfield’s career you have to start with Baker Mayfield. Just as he was drafted No. 1 overall, he is on his fourth team in six years for a reason.
It usually begins and ends with the mirror, but he also keeps going to the wrong team at the wrong time.
The worst thing that happened to Baker Mayfield was being drafted No. 1 overall, by the Cleveland Browns.
He currently is on a one-year contract in Tampa, where he will replace the greatest quarterback of all time. Tom Brady could have squeezed out one more year, but he elected to retire for good this time in part because he knows the Bucs have issues.
Issues Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys’ fleshed out in their 31-14 win against the Bucs in the NFC wild-card round back in January.
Baker Mayfield is tasked to compensate for a team’s issues when Tom Brady realized he could not. Have fun with that.
The Bucs won the Super Bowl in 2020, but look like a team that is flirting with rebuilding, and a top-five pick in the draft.
This is not the team you want to go to rebuild your career. This is a team you go to when your career is either over, or floundering.
In order, Mayfield started at one of the worst organizations in professional sports, the Cleveland Browns. He had one solid season in Cleveland, and also didn’t do himself any favors.
The Browns thought so little of Mayfield after four seasons they traded him in July of ‘22 for a conditional fifth-round pick, and agreed to eat most of the remainder of his contract. The franchise he went to was stuck in a down cycle of bad, the Carolina Panthers.
The Panthers were a mess, and fired head coach Matt Rhule after a 1-4 start; Mayfield started all of those games.
The Panthers gave up on Mayfield and cut him on Dec. 5.
On Dec. 6, he was signed by a L.A. Rams team crushed by injury, including to starting QB Matt Stafford
Two days later, he came off the bench and led the Rams to a win against the Raiders. In that game it looked like all Mayfield needed was to be on a decent team with a decent supporting staff, and he can be a good NFL quarterback.
He started the final four games, the Rams team finished 1-3 and Mayfield’s performance was mostly the same as it had been in Cleveland and Carolina.
Every so often he’d squeeze in one of those pretty passes around a handful of questionable decisions.
The Rams still have Stafford, and Mayfield wanted to go to a place where he could play. He can play in Tampa.
“It was the first time I had fun playing football in a few years,” Mayfield said of his time with the Rams. “It brought that feeling of having that success and remembering what it was all about. It just kinda hit the reset button for me. ...
“Kinda revitalized, pumped up and looking forward to the future.”
Mayfield’s long-term future in the NFL will be decided in the short term. This is Mayfield’s last chance to prove he can be a quality NFL starting quarterback.
By Week 8, Tampa will know if it fell backwards into a competent starter, or that they simply have a young retread whose NFL legacy will be defined by his draft slot.
