MVP Candidate Baker Mayfield Still Putting People in Their Place

“Every time he goes to a different team, it seems like he learns more about the league and more about himself”

– Nate Burleson on Baker Mayfield

When I think about Baker Mayfield, I inevitably think of Colin Cowherd. 

Those two were linked years ago, like Jim Everett and Jim Rome, a quarterback trying to find his way and a reporter hellbent on keeping him from doing so. 

For years, Colin Cowherd had criticized Mayfield, from his early Oklahoma antics both on and off the field, to his methods of celebration, to his inability to live up to the hype of the number one pick and lead a team to victory.

Who’s the asshole now?

Mayfield wasn’t the first ever quarterback to be labeled a bust, albeit prematurely.  Countless quarterbacks who preceded him at number one went on to flame out.  To be fair, expectations of a top drafted quarterback are lofty, perhaps even unrealistic, with billions of dollars and an entire franchises’ direction at stake, not to mention a man and his family’s well-being.  Just ask any quarterback that has been drafted that high.

But back to the interview.

As you’ll hear in its entirety, if you can stomach listening to Colin Cowherd for that long, the broadcaster first touts his own skills, as if he were desperately interviewing for a GM position.  Cowherd opens the interview by listing athletes he’s allowed to visit his show to defend themselves from his blathering.  In doing so, you’ll notice he calls Russell Wilson the best athlete he’s seen outside of Michael Vick and Steve Young.  That sound you just heard is me laughing on the inside.

Through nearly the entire interview, Cowherd baits the young Baker, setting multiple traps which Mayfield skillfully evades as if he’s doing tire drills.  Fast forward 13 minutes into the interview where Baker puts Cowherd in his place once and for all.  A confident Mayfield, only 23 at the time, stands his ground and basically tells Cowherd where he can stick it.  The interview is worth listening to just for that moment alone.

Not much about Mayfield has changed since then.  I take that back.  A lot has changed.  His venue, multiple times.  Once in Cleveland, Baker traveled from Charlotte to LA, and now resides in Tampa, where he is revered.  The perception of Mayfield was never as resolute as his own determination.

What has not changed about Baker since this 2018 interview is his steadfastness.  Most Cleveland fans will tell you they miss him.  They saw something in the kid and felt the franchise quit on him too early but when has Cleveland ever made the right decision at quarterback?

It wasn’t until Mayfield got to Tampa, his sixth year in the league, that something clicked.  We’ve seen this before, young quarterbacks struggling early only to find comfort in a new supportive environment.  Sometimes, it takes the right time and place.  As difficult as it is to determine whether a quarterback will thrive, what’s rarer is multiple teams passing on one that ultimately finds himself in an MVP race.

In 2013, Peyton Manning won the MVP in Denver, not the team who drafted him, but no one would ever consider Manning to not be among the greatest ever.  In 2002, Rich Gannon won the league’s MVP with the Raiders, his third team, but Gannon could always play and was never passed over like Mayfield was.  In 1999 and 2001, Kurt Warner won league MVP.  He’s probably the closest we’ve come to “this guy can’t play in the league” to success at the highest level.  Warner was once stocking grocery shelves.  Steve Young won league MVP in 1992 and 1994 and started his career late but only because he couldn’t get out of Joe Montana’s shadow.

This is not to suggest Baker Mayfield wins this year’s MVP but that’s how far you must go back to find a quarterback that won the league’s highest individual honor by either a team that didn’t draft him or to find one that nobody had given the chance.

So far this year, Baker Mayfield has led his Buccaneers to the NFC’s best record, 5-1.  If the playoffs started today, which they don’t, the Bucs would have a bye.  Admittedly, there is plenty of season left to play.  We’re only six weeks into it.  Nobody knows that better than Baker.  But the team’s torrid start has everyone in the area beside themselves, and anyone who mentions Baker revering his name.

Baker is fourth in the league in passing yardage, third in touchdowns and has only thrown only one interception.  His third-and-14 scramble to escape would-be tacklers in Sunday’s game against the 49ers was nothing short of jaw-dropping.  His teammates agree.

“I don’t know what he puts in his cereal every morning” wondered rookie wide receiver Tez Johnson, who caught his first career touchdown pass, plays after Baker’s scramble kept the Buccaneers alive.

Mayfield credits his linemen, his teammates, his coaching staff, all the while raising a little girl and probably spending a lot of time in an ice bath.  He’s wily, a gamer, a leader, an inspiration, literally everything you want out of your franchise quarterback, which is why, knowing what we know now, it’s astonishing that other franchises passed on him. 

Like player-turned-analyst Nate Burleson so astutely noted above, the more places Baker’s been, the more he’s learned not only about the league but about himself.  It’s the perfect playbook in the face of adversity.

Baker Mayfield’s odds to win league MVP at the beginning of the season were 30 to 1.  They’re down to 4 to 1.  Any such honor comes with a little help from his friends.  He’ll be the first to admit it.  The Bucs won Sunday’s game without their starting running back and their best three wide receivers.  You’d be hard-pressed to find another quarterback in the league playing better and few other locker rooms ready to run through a wall as the Bucs will for Baker.

It should also be noted that Baker Mayfield replaced Tom Brady in Tampa Bay, a man who is commonly considered the greatest quarterback of all time and who brought the Bucs their second Super Bowl in franchise history.

Baker was and remains unphased by the pressure.  All he’s done is continue to win NFC South titles despite continual changes at offensive coordinator.  For someone who shock jocks once regularly blasted, Mayfield never internalized the outside noise and never doubted himself.

“You need somebody that’s going to be able to manage a team, make those guys around him better.  It doesn’t matter the size, when it comes to that, all of that is out window, and just be able to get a W,” Baker told Cowherd back in 2018.

It’s nice to know some things never change.