Cleveland Browns: The uncanny parallel between Baker Mayfield and Brett Favre

After a head-turning first year followed by a slow start by the Cleveland Browns in his second season, Baker Mayfield continues to parallel the career of Brett Favre.

It is incredible to watch the number of people turning their backs on last year’s Rookie of the Year runner-up and Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. Just 18 starts into his career and coming off of the best rookie season by a rookie quarterback in NFL history, Mayfield has started the 2019 season slowly, but he is not alone in the sophomore struggles.

The year was 1993 and Green Bay Packers’ quarterback was coming off of his first season as the starting quarterback for his new team after being traded from the Atlanta Falcons. The year prior, 1992, Favre threw for over 3,200 yards passing, tossed 18 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions.

The Packers were riding the high of finding their next franchise quarterback in Favre and expectations for the ‘93 season were high after finishing 9-7 the year before, 8-5 under their new quarterback. After five games, however, the Packers found themselves with just a 2-3 record, and Favre himself was struggling to carry over the momentum from the year before.

Through the first five games of the season, Favre was staring a stat line of just 934 yards passing, five touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He was completing below 59 percent of his passes and it looked as though Favre had significantly regressed from the year before.