Cleveland Browns: The uncanny parallel between Baker Mayfield and Brett Favre
By Cory Kinnan
Sound familiar?
With the first pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Browns selected Mayfield to be their franchise quarterback a feat they had attempted many times before. On draft night, Mayfield even posed as Favre did in the historic photo of the phone call that would change his life forever.
“There are those people who are in your corner no matter what, you can’t do any wrong, even when you do wrong. And then there are those people that no matter what you do they’re going to dislike you and that’s not going to change.” - Brett Favre #DraftEve #MMO pic.twitter.com/6bCE9SxqI6
— Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) April 26, 2018
After a rough start for veteran Tyrod Taylor, Mayfield stepped in after Taylor went down with an injury in the third game of the season; down 14-0, on Monday Night Football, Mayfield brought the Browns back. He would go on to throw for the most touchdowns ever by a rookie quarterback with 27; Mayfield also threw for over 3,700 yards and finished with a 6-7 record as the Browns starters, more wins than the past three seasons combined, and the rest was history.
Except that in his second season, the Browns have floundered to a 2-3 start and Mayfield has looked completely overmatched through the first five games. Mayfield is ranking near the bottom of the league in almost every statistical category, including DVOA, quarterback rating, and interceptions thrown.
Through their first two seasons as starting quarterbacks in the National Football League, Mayfield is giving off strong Favre flashbacks in his play and attitude. This is a reason for Browns fans to rejoice rather than cast off a player 18 games into his career because he has not led the third-youngest team in the league with a rookie head coach to an undefeated start.