Baker Mayfield has had an interesting career, year and week.
Before setting foot in the NFL, Mayfield achieved the amazing accomplishment of going from walk-on at two schools (Texas Tech and Oklahoma) to winning the Heisman Trophy and being the top selection in the NFL draft. That 2018 first round included five quarterbacks with varying degrees of success: from the elite (Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson) to the replaced (Sam Darnold) to the “Is he still in the league?” (Josh Rosen). As for Mayfield, he was a bit of all of the above in the last week, released by one team (where Darnold remains) and playing like an MVP three days later.
Even the Browns, the team that spent that No. 1 pick on Mayfield, did not quite know what to do with him. After taking over the starting job from Tyrod Taylor early in his rookie season, he showed flashes of brilliance, as well as stretches of incompetence, albeit much of it injury-laden. The Browns had two contractual decisions to make on Mayfield, and did so with mixed confidence. Although they did exercise his fifth-year option, guaranteeing him $19 million for 2022 (more on that below), they did not extend his contract beyond that, choosing only to “date” and not marry.
