Welcome to sports activities take workshop, the place opinions are half-assed as a result of there’s not sufficient proof to completely help the spice. At the moment the main focus is Baker Mayfield. The brand new Los Angeles Rams QB was minimize by Carolina on Monday, claimed off waivers by the Rams on Tuesday, and got here off the bench to steer L.A. to a comeback win Thursday.
Who is aware of how a lot of Sean McVay’s scheme Mayfield has memorized, or whether or not he was using muscle reminiscence on the 98-yard drive that accomplished the second-half comeback and despatched the Las Vegas Raiders again right into a dying spiral, however the Raiders had a 96.7 % win likelihood when L.A. took the sphere down six with the ball and fewer than two minutes remaining.
Eighty of his 230 passing yards and his solely landing throw got here on that ultimate drive, with the remainder of the yards by way of Vegas coming by way of penalties. Derek Carr, who’s been the Raider beginning quarterback for the higher a part of a decade, completed with 137 yards within the air and two interceptions.
My take isn’t who’s higher: Carr or Mayfield? It’s, do we all know definitively that Baker is a shitty QB? Essentially the most success he’s had was in school taking part in for Lincoln Riley. Nonetheless, he didn’t precisely mild the Massive 12 on fireplace in his freshman season at Texas Tech beneath Kliff Kingsbury.
Ditto for his stops in Cleveland and Carolina since being drafted No. 1 general. His coaches at these two stops have been Hue Jackson, Freddie Kitchens, Kevin Stefanski, Matt Rhule, and Steve Wilks. Three of these coaches have been fired, one is an interim, and the opposite is Stefanski, whose highest scoring season with the Browns was 2020 after they completed 14th in factors per sport.
Previous to this damage season from hell, Sean McVay groups completed first, second, eleventh, twenty second, and seventh in scoring offense with the likes of Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford beneath heart. He’s proven a capability to get the most effective out of critically flawed sign callers.
I do know it’s solely been one sport, and Stafford is in 12 months one among a $160 million, four-year contract. I’m simply saying Riley is one among, if not the most effective, coaches in school soccer at creating quarterbacks. Caleb Williams must be his third Heisman winner of the previous 5 QBs he’s coached, and he additionally turned Jalen Hurts right into a second-round decide. So if he may flip Mayfield from a walk-on right into a Heisman winner, couldn’t McVay do one thing related with a quarterback who’s proven flashes on the professional degree?
Beneath the appropriate tutelage, I don’t assume it’s unreasonable to say Mayfield may nonetheless be a profitable NFL participant. He had above-average seasons two of his 4 years in Cleveland, and the Browns are actually the worst staff of the previous 20 years at creating quarterbacks.
We all know taking part in the place is simply as a lot about imaginative and prescient and confidence as it’s about arm energy. Mayfield got here off the road and gained a sport mainly on intuition, and I don’t assume that’ll be misplaced on a coach like McVay.
With Stafford probably executed for the season and the staff 4-9, the following 4 video games are primarily an audition for Mayfield. He’s solely 27 and has loads of soccer left in him. Put him in the appropriate scenario with the appropriate coach, and who is aware of. I’m uncertain if this present depleted Rams roster is good for any QB, however perhaps he and people Progressive adverts could make a comeback with slightly McVay makeover.