We’ve successfully completed our tumble through the NFL looking glass and arrived safely at a place where Baker Mayfield is no longer immature or limited, no longer ill-sized or an acquired taste and is merely underpaid. Saying as much is no longer fanaticism; it’s simply fact. The quality of quarterbacking Tampa Bay is getting right now from a player who is making less money than Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold, Geno Smith or—dry cough—Deshaun Watson remains one of the great (soon to be corrected) financial victories of our time. For his team, at least.
After watching Mayfield rumble over the 49ers, certainly an outfit that has injury issues of its own and saw how difficult a game plan can be when Mac Jones cools down to a normal human temperature and isn’t completing theatrical, blindfold-style out routes (Jones went from a 17.5 EPA against the Rams in a stunning victory last week to a negative-five thanks to San Francisco’s offensive line also folding, plus the 49ers lost all-world linebacker Fred Warner in this game to a dislocated ankle), I think it’s time we make the proper overcorrection on Mayfield that has been so long in the making.
