Draft Preview - Baker Mayfield

Baker Mayfield, the seventeen Heisman Trophy winner. This guy has video game statistics when you look at him online, walked on at Texas Tech, transferred to Oklahoma, walked on there. We're gonna speak to the Monday Morning Quarterbacks Robert Clemco later on in this episode. But this is a guy e a that he knows how to win. But he's also someone that said, you know what's his elite skill compared to the other three, Well, he would tell you that he is more accurate than everybody. He did, in fact,

tell everybody that in Indianapolis at the combine. He is also on record is saying that if you want to turn your franchise around, you will pick me. He has an unbelievable belief in himself which I think is going to draw a lot of folks towards him. Pass At Oklahoma last year he led the Sooners to the national semifinal where I thought he played very well and George and he missed a couple of passes here and there, um,

but really good feet and highly intelligent as well. I know some people are gonna look at it as a knock the air raid offense that he comes from in Norman, Oklahoma. And then before that you mentioned Texas Tech, But anybody you talked to who spent some time with him will say that he can diagnose very quickly, not just on

a board, but the way he plays the game. And you actually spoke to Chad Pennington down in Orlando for the NFL Annual League Meeting and he said that he believes Baker Mayfield is the purest passer of the bunch, and he came to that conclusion in Indianapolis when he saw him throw at Lucas Oil Stadium. And Baker Mayfield is one of those guys where the first thing you think of is not only his accuracy, but his competitive spirit.

And we talked about it in our prior episodes. Sam Donald's competitive Josh Allen's competitive as well, but this guy is very I would say he's the most infectious of the bunch. He's someone that really wears his heart on his sleeve, and you can tell that he plays the game with a lot of emotion. Some people may think, well, sometimes a little too much emotion. Because as you saw,

or maybe as you didn't see, Oklahoma played Kansas. He went out for the coin toss as a captain, stuck out his hand for a handshake and the Kansas players kept their arms behind their back refused to shake his head. That seemed to spark him that game Oklahoma one Baker looked at the Kansas sideline, grabbed his cross and said, go cheer on your hoops team. Kansas did go to the Final four, so if they stuck the best ball, they'd a good job this year. No, but on a

serious level, I think, uh, he's got a lot of moxie. Uh. Some people would say that he takes it a step too far. I think even Baker Mayfield would admit that he would like to have that one back. But he's an excitable guy. After they went to Ohio State and beat the buck guys this year, after getting drilled at home in Norman the year before Baker found a flag. You know you fled. He tried to plan it at midfield. It didn't really work because if you're gonna plan a flag,

you gotta find grass. Unfortunately in this case, and so you're saying it's a technicality. In this case, it was just filter. Him and his guys were just having some fun. YEA. The more you read about Baker Mayfield, the biggest questions teams have aren't about off the field. It's about him on the field. And the one thing that you see from him a couple of things is that here's a guy who's about one inch taller than Russell Wilson. He's got a quick release, he doesn't mind pressure. In fact,

he thrives off a second chance opportunities. I would say this is when pro scouts and GM are making the projections. I don't think the NFL is built on second chance opportunities where Baker could get away with that. I think something's at the collegiate level that he might not be able to get away with on the next level. With that being said, he does a lot of things that you like. His feet are good, he can move around in the pocket, he can create throwing lanes, incredibly smart,

he was prolific. Bottom line is I like college players who come out and today had success in college, and Baker Mayfield is a guy who had a lot of success on the field. Yeah, I think it's time to check in with Robert Clemco because this is someone, like you said, is doing a deep dive on Baker Mayfield. What better guy to talk to than so Well that's spent a lot of time with Baker, had coach Lincoln Riley of Oklahoma and all those close to those two.

Let's check in with Robert clemcol Let's bring in the aforementioned Robert Clemco, who's doing tremendous work for Monday Morning Quarterback. Right now, Robert, where did this project all start? The genesis of you guys taking Baker Mayfield and doing an extended series on him. So, you know, I think in our industry, we have gotten in the habit of, you know, cranking out these profiles of draft prospects, and you know, you write a story on a guy and then you

just kind of move on. And I wanted to do something that felt more like I was a scout and I was trying to learn everything I could about a guy because my job depended on it. Kind of a far fetched plan because we didn't think anybody would actually

agree to it. And our number one choice was Baker Mayfield in part because you know, he's so talented and we knew would be a first round pick, but also, you know, the big personality, the off the field question, the fact that he has a six ft quarterback, you know, trying to fighting against the odds, and that he was getting these really crazy comparisons to you know, Johnny Manziel and Drew Brees and Russell Wilson. I mean, the comparisons that this kid has just kind of run the gamut.

So we asked him, and you know, to our surprise, he was completely down with it. And I think that over the course of the series, I realized why, and I think they felt that he was getting an unfair wrap in terms of that Manzel comparison, and they felt like an honest examination would kind of reveal that it's

really good stuff. We're gonna get into it right now on the Fishal Judge podcast, but we follow you on Twitter as well, and I like that you put out in a tweet the other day, he said people are complex and evolving and can't be reduced to a quote or a paragraph, and that I think to a T.

Fitz Baker Mayfield. Yeah, yeah, Well, And what I was talking about was we had just put out a story that talked about how he's motivated by criticism and slights, whether it's media, whether it's other players, and you know what I mean. He goes so far as to keep screenshots of tweets by media members in his phone as motivation, and I think a lot of people are motivated that way.

But I talked to Joe Thomas and Russell Wilson, and those guys talked about how as a quarterback, especially as a rookie, going into a situation where you may not have a lot of success early on, you have to be more insular than that. You can't rely on outside criticism to motivate you, because there's gonna be a lot of it and at some point it's gonna get overwhelming.

What's kind of annoying about Twitter is that you write a story like that as part of a larger series, thinking what you hope is an honest look at a guy, and everybody latches onto that and says, oh, he's a bus right. Uh, there's no way he's going to succeed

in the NFL because of this one thing. And I think social media in a lot of ways, and I don't want to sound like an old fogey here, but it's kind of cheapened our discourse on this sort of thing and allows people to just confirm the biases that they already have. That's something that I wanted to try to, you know, overcome with this series. What something you were expecting to learn about Mayfield and maybe it was kind of your own thoughts are in versus what you know now?

Is there kind of a discrepancy there? Well, you know, I don't follow college football extremely closely, Like I probably watched three or four of Baker's games in prime time just because you know, we cover the NFL and on Saturdays it's kind of like my day off. So I

went into what was kind of a clean slate. But you do read about the crotch grabbing and specifically the arrest back in you know, last spring in Faytteville, Arkansas, running away from the cops, and usually I think you assume, and you rightly assume, that this is not like the first time that he's ever been in a jam like this.

It's just the first time he got caught, right. So, the first thing I did when they agreed to, you know, be interviewed for the series and kind of aid in the logistics of it and all that, was to file open records requests with police jurisdictions in Austin, Texas, where he's from, Lubbock, where he went to Texas Tech Norman with the Sheriff's Department in the city police department there, and also Arkansas pett Ville, Arkansas, for any records that

mentioned the name Baker Mayfield, and all of these police stations and entities are obligated to pass along those records within a pretty reasonable amount of time. So I think that, you know, we would find something that you know, I'm acting like a scout. I'm trying to find a dig up dirt, and I was pretty confident that I would find something. And I didn't. You know, we got back only the stuff that had already been reported about Baker

in Arkansas and nothing else. And I think that was a surprise to me, and I began to understand why they even agreed to do this in the first place. Has he lost any of it? Through your examination of what made him Baker may Feel the guy who went to Texas Tech and battled for the job there, then transferred to Oklahoma. He came in there, took that job, and then never looked back. Now he is a star and he's about to get drafted, probably in the first round.

You would think Barne something really unforeseen right now along the way as he's grabbed all this attention and a fandom from folks out there. Has he ever lost what

made him Baker Mayfield. He told an interesting story to me that you know I'm gonna feature in the magazine, and he talked about how he wanted to go to Florida Atlantic because they had offered him them in Washington State were the only two teams that had offered him coming out of high school, even though he'd gone to this extremely prestigious program like Travis and they won the state championship every other year, and Michael Brewer was a

quarterback there and Garret Gilbert, like just a string of incredible quarterbacks that went on to college success. Baker didn't get recruited, I think as a byproduct of how successful that program was and a lot of people felt that he was a system quarterback even then. So he wanted to go to Florida Atlantic, and he was kind of afraid to tell his dad because he knew his dad wanted him to, you know, go bigger. And his dad said, look,

you can do better than this. I mean, you've been able to prove people wrong your entire high school career. Why not walk on somewhere you want to go. And they got enormous argument about it because Baker wanted to go somewhere he was wanted. And then at the end of it, Baker decided that he was going to walk on at Texas Tech. And then he had that decision immediately validated by starting as a freshman winning the Big

twelve Freshman of the Year award. And I think that that success and that that kind of bet that he made on himself, he just kept doubling down on that and doubling down on that, and he was so smart

and how he went about winning those two jobs. We talked about, you know, the hard work and all of the preparation that he had to go through, not knowing if he was gonna have an opportunity, but he also talked about making sure that you're asking the right questions, not just so that you're getting necessary information, so that people know that you're asking the right questions and people notice it. I think he was really great at putting in the work but also being noticed and recognized for

that work. And people say, you know, he's not a CEO and he's not enough of a politician to be an NFL quarterback. I think the opposite it. I mean, I think this guy is crafty as hell. Yeah, so we're speaking to Robert klem Go Monday Morning quarterback who also doubled down in sports illustraight, and we'll be looking for more work from him in the weeks. I had as we get closer to the draft, you said that Baker Mayfield has leaned on chair Pennyton somewhat as a mentor.

Can you talk about that a little bit. Yeah, Chad is sort of a mentor to a lot of guys at the combine. Through this NFL Legends program, he ends up, you know, kind of shepherding these quarterbacks through all these various parts of that process. And then he was also

at the Senior Bowl talking to players. So I think he's trying to step into this role of coach mentor to the stars, and I think Baker has found in him kind of an impartial ear and somebody he can bounce things off of, and somebody who can give advice that Baker knows isn't coming from a place of you know, trying to benefit off of Baker success or anything like

that or piggyback off of his name. And one of the things that Chad has tried to do is to curtail these instincts and Baker that leave people to think

that he's not the CEO type. One of my stories in the series I lead with Baker kind of blowing off the Brown Scout because you know why the Browns trying to interview me, knowing they just drafted mental Trabiski, and Chad Pennington has tried to dissuade him of that and just tell him, you know, there's thirty two teams out there and in four years you might end up

playing for that Scout that you just blew off. So yeah, I think that it's been a learning process for Baker and it was really important for him to meet Chat early on in this offseason. You went through a film breakdown with Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, And I know one of the Knox per se on Baker is that you know he's coming from an offense stats quarterback friendly.

So can you just dive into a little bit more detail on what Lincoln Riley and maybe even you think that Baker will translate to a successful quarterback just bite his offensive scheme in college. Yeah, well, I think we all have this view of the up tempo variations on

the spread offense. You know, whether it's the blur or the air raid where the quarterback looks over to the sideline and he gets a call, or he looks at a picture of you know, Oscar the Grouch or something, and then everybody knows that that's the play they're running, and then the sideline is completely orchestrating the whole thing. That's a little bit of a stereotype in a lot of cases, especially with quarterbacks that have a lot of experience in a program and with a particular coach in

that offense. And I think Baker has been an exception in the same way that Patrick Mahomes a Texas Tech was an exception. In sitting down with Lincoln Riley, it it really helped me understand, and I hope it help readers understand how much he grew within that offense, because that's what a lot of these coaches are asking of Riley. How much can we put on him early on and how quickly is he going to be able to process it.

I mean, I know that he got a real sense from the Jets in his vis it with them that it wasn't a boiler plate interview, that they had already done some research and watched a lot of film of Oklahoma football, and that Jeremy Bates was already, you know, putting together some offensive concepts that would translate to the NFL from Oklahoma in the event that they did draft Baker.

So that interview really stood out to him because they were doing some of the same things that I was doing with Lincoln Riley and trying to learn, you know, what Baker's responsibilities were and how quickly he could take on information at the next level. That was great layout on that article because not only are you speaking to it with pros, but the video of the actual plays was incorporated in those articles. So that was very good.

I really enjoyed that. I just don't click on it in six months when all the television broadcast was playing the YouTube right, so it's working right now, so it's all good. Something else that stood out to me Baker Mayfield.

He's a pretty intelligent cat, isn't he. You wrote that there was a quarterback prospect this year who was scored in the top a hundred on an a i Q test, which is basically an intelligence test for prospects coming out, and that's out of more than four thousand tests, and this person was the second highest scoring quarterback out of sixty three who have taken the tests since two thousand twelve. You said, you've got a couple of sources saying that

guy is Baker Mayfield. Yeah, and it's a it's a new intelligence test that's been used with the combines since two thousands twelve that's meant to replace the wonder like because the wonderlick does have a lot of cultural and language biases and hasn't really been shown to correlate directly to NFL success. So this doctor, Scott Goldman, was a sports psychologist, spent the last ten fifteen years developing this test that he has now found a positive correlation between

a high score and success and playing time. Early on in an NFL career. So it's only been since two thousand twelve, so obviously the sample side isn't that huge, but sixty three quarterbacks have taken this thing, and Baker was the second highest score. It's valued by a couple of teams in the NFL who subscribed to all the testing results, and those teams two teams are secret, and then five or six other teams in the NFL will then pay at a premium for say their top one

draft prospects results on that test. So I think it's something that you know, we're gonna hear about more often in years to come. It's a very new thing into combine. Robert, what do you think his most elite physical quality is? Because when I'm always asked about Baker Mayfield, I said, well, the first thing that stands out to anybody is this guy is so driven. He is super competitive. You can see that without knowing him. But you've been in his camp per se for a few months, You've t talk

to people around him. What about his physical qualities? What stands out to you the most? You know, he doesn't have a spectacular arm. He's not going to allow you with a seventy yard throw downfield, you know, on the money, like a Josh Allen is. He's not a big guy. He's not a fast guy. You know, he runs for eight and people compare to Russell Wilson, but Russell Wilson

is way faster than Baker Mayfield, way more athletic. I think the thing that stands out and the kind of this analytics and statistics fact this up is that his accuracy when throwing on the run or when pressured when backing up, moving side to side, moving forward is almost identical to his accuracy when he's got a clean pocket.

And that's a special thing and a and a very necessary thing when you're six foot tall, because you know you're gonna have to be moving around and trying to find passing lanes, trying to create opportunities that maybe comes

more easier to six foot five quarterbacks. But just watching film with Riley, that's one thing that he pointed out is that in practice, Baker would rarely just drop back in a seven on seven drill and just sling it from a comfortable position, even if there was nobody around him. He was falling to his right or falling away, falling left evading imaginary pressure in order to replicate some of the things that he would face in games. And I

think that work really showed in two thousands seventeen. You wrote early on in the series that potentially you thought Baker may feel hit ten Destinations says that let's grown or shrunk. Do you think, yeah, I think it's shrunk. I think that as it's become clear that he's, you know, closer to being a top five pick than top fifteen pick, there are teams that probably would have taken a lookout at him, but you know, aren't willing to trade up into that spot. I would say that list is probably

five teams at this point. I think you have to consider the Bills and Dolphins, but they would have to trade up early in the first round. I think that the Jets, the Broncos, and the Browns are probably your top three right now in terms of candidates for Baker. And I know that everybody has mocked Sam Donald to the Browns, but I don't think they've made that distinction yet there. I think they're loving that everybody thinks they've

made up their minds. Well, and you know this very well, Hugh Jackson said Baker Mayfield the pied Piper of Oklahoma football. When do you think about that? It's weird. I heard that same phrase from GM at another team, just kind of independent of that. It's a it's a popular kind of football colloquialism, but there's some meaning to it. But I guess what they're trying to say is that he kind of has a cult of personality down at Oklahoma, and that's what you want to see out of a

quarterback that's going to be your franchise guy. I mean, when scouts went down to Texas A and M, for instance, to investigate Johnny Manzel, there was no shortage of people that would talk trash about Johnny that were connected to that program. But you can't find anybody to talk trash about Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma. And I'm sure that's, you know, similar with a lot of these other quarterbacks in the

top of the first round. I think it's kind of a prerequisite if you're gonna draft a quarterback in the first that he's got a really humongous following among the people that he worked with every day in college. I'm telling you what. Robert Klemco Monday Morning Quarterback, also you can find his work in Sports illustrated. Speaking to that, you talked to tight on Mark Andrews is gonna be playing on Sundays as well. He said that makefield puts

you in good spaces. And he's a guy who comes in, he works hard, and he thinks he can flip a program around on the next level. Yeah, Andrews is, you know, was his probably top receiver in two thousand seventeen. And it was interesting talking to him because so much had changed for them from two thousand and sixteen and two thousand and seventeen. I mean, they had been a very

vertical offense. In thousand and sixteen. They had Dede Westbrook, who was like one of the fastest players in college football that year, and and when he and a group of senior wide receivers moved on, Andrews was by far the most talented and most experienced receiver in that offense. And they really had to adapt, you know, what they

were doing to kind of fit the personnel. And I think that's another thing that NFL teams looked at, how did Baker respond to kind of deficiencies around the roster where there had been done previously Robert through all your time with Baker and Lincoln Riley and people close to Baker is do you have like an anecdote or a story that maybe not a lot of people know about that really sticks out to you about Baker Mayfield, either the player or the person. You know. I I've been

really impressed with his patients. I think that it was one of the most unique things about this whole thing, has been working with his agents, because he did not pick mega football agents. You know, he didn't pick Cia or Drew Rosenhouse or any of those other guys. I mean, he went with some guys that have a really small firm in Bowld of Colorado, who has some Oklahoma connections. And I think that he's more of a home body

than people realize. I remember a story from Jack Mills, the agent who recruited Baker, and they were, you know, in a pitch meeting and Jack handed Baker a sheet with salary the top thirty two guys drafted last year, so you know, every every one of these first round picks has a slotted salary and bonus compensation. And people were talking at that time in early January about Baker being, you know, a mid round pick, maybe the nineteenth pick

to the Chargers or Washington. Uh there in the middle of the first round, and Baker drew a line under the fifth pick and said, I'm not going below this pick. He kind of has this unreal self confidence that he can make things happen that he actually has no control over, and things just kind of happened to work out for him, but really over his whole life. And I think that as much as you want to say people down in Oklahoma kind of believe in him unconditionally, he believes in

himself even more than that. And lastly, for me, Robert is I'm not asking you to predict the future, but what kind of pro quarterback do you think he is going to be? I can't say, you know, I think that so much of it depends on the situation these

guys are in. I mean, you look at how many talented n c A quarterbacks who came in the NFL with high pedigrees and a lot of expectations kind of wilted when there was changeover within an organization, when his offensive line was absolutely trash, and when the media criticism weighed heavy, when there was competition there that he didn't expect, and wasn't really ready to cope with. You know, all

of those are factors. It's the great unknown. You know, there are people that still swear that Chad Henning would be a franchise quarterback in the NFL if he hadn't been drafted by the Jaguards. Um so I can't say I do. I would say that I have met, you know, quarterbacks in this league before and been around successful quarterbacks.

I live in Denver cover Peyton Manning, and I think that Baker has a lot of the same qualities of these guys in terms of the work ethic, and that's gonna be one of the most important things, right, fascinating stuff. You're doing. Tremendous work, Robert Klumco. And uh, you know, it's always great to catch up with a former terror pin. I graduated from the University of Maryland, probably a little bit before you, Robert, I graduated in But hey, listen,

we really enjoyed catching up with you. Maybe we can talk in the future. And uh, keep up the great work. Thanks for having me go to great stuff there. From Robert Klumco of Monday Morning Quarterback. YEA, something I thought was very interesting. He said, a lot of pro comps lead to Russell Wilson and Baker Mayfield from a comparison perspect to, but they're very different. And I told you this before on the Official Jezz podcast a couple of

weeks ago. My own personal comp for what it's worth, take it or leave it from a pure pocket awareness and mobility perspective, is someone who calls games for CBS, and that is Tony Robo because he can dance in the pocket, He makes guys miss, he's accurate, and if he needs to hold chucking and run after he looks downfield, isn't wrong A little bit taller. I understand what you're saying, and that's if you're a Baker Mayfield fan, you like that comparison because I think Tony Romo was a very

good quarterback. With all that being said, it is so hard to project these guys on the next level. So scouts and GMS, when you're looking at Baker Mayfield, when you're looking at josh An, when you're looking at josh Rosen, when you're looking at Sam Donald, you have to say, what structure do we have in place, what is our system? And who is the guy to best match it. I think it's fascinating where Clump goes said, hey, listen, Mayfield, he drew a line after that number five pick that

was that was a good anecdote right there. So Mayfield, of course, that's what you expect from him, that he thinks that he is one of the top player. He thinks he thinks he's the top player in this draft, and he doesn't think it will get past five. And there are a lot of people who agree with him. Tony Romo six. Not a big height discrepancy there between

those two. So I talked. I talked to Jim Miller at the league meetings and he said he thought that the West Coast system that Jeremy Bates will run next year here with the Jets, and obviously he's a protege and Mike Shanahanna and denver Um he thinks would be

a great fit for Baker Mayfield. And you also spoke to Albert Brier, and I thought what he said it was very interesting too, is he said, we'll look at Kirk Cousins and try to see what is similar to Kirk Cousins and in these four quarterbacks, because Jeremy Bates comes from the Shanahan tree, and Shanahan coach Kirk Cousins, and they're multiple Shanahan. So let me be clear here, Bates worked under Mike Shanahan, Shanahan's son, Kyle coach Cousins.

So just to make sure the dominoes are in full effect, there there is some kind of tie to a Shanahan system and Jeremy Bates. And therefore Albert Brier said, try to look for some qualities and some of these guys, like Kirk Cousins. One of those guys that has similar qualities and none of these guys are a perfect match

is Baker Mayfield. We'll tell you what. And the other thing is, I think that there are a lot of people who are Jets fans right now who love the kids passion, his compete level, his moxie, his hey, get on board with me and I'm gonna lead you to the promised Land. I think there are a lot of people out there, not only in the Jets fan base, but and fan bases throughout the National Football League where you know, this becomes an attractive player and an attractive

person at a prominent position. But you cannot argue with what he did in college on the field and Klemco said, Hey, listen, he was so well liked within the building and Norman, within that program, anywhere where he played. He was a natural leader. And you know, he isn't Russell Wilson because he doesn't have that kind of athleticism in terms of speed, but he does possess very good feed and he's got

a quick release. He's not afraid to stand in there and take a shot or try to avoid a guy, and he's gonna compete his tail off to the very end no matter what happens, what happens with a pro career, we don't know. It's gonna be fascinating to find out, but I'm really interested to see where this guy goes

on draft weekend. I am too. And something I thought Clemco said which was extremely interesting is in practice, he's making all these off balance throws because he's trying to simulate what it would be like when he's escaping pressure in a live situation. And you know, being six one, maybe that's some of the things that you need to do and try to put yourself in different situations and practice.

So when a big defensive lineman's running at you, you're rolling out to your right or your left and you're you're throwing dimes. If you're Baker Man, I'll tell you what, he'd be the guy you want to play with, you know, when you were growing up and you're playing tackle football at the park, because he's the guys all you're gonna keep the play alive and you're never gonna get him down, and he just guy's gonna stay out there that pass

the time. When his mom calls him in for dinner, you know you're gonna say, I got I got some more play than Baker Mayfield. Yeah he was. He wasn't in this video game, but he would be a tremendous asset to NFL Street to the video game. It was a great game. If you've never played it, you should go play. And that's all we have here on the Official Jets Podcast, Baker Mayfield Edition. Next episode, we're gonna keep it in sunny California. That's gonna be the Josh

Rosen Dissect again. We'll have Sam Farmer on yet again on the Official Jets Podcast. There you have it for Eric Allen, I'm Ethan Greenberg.