Is Baker Mayfield an elite NFL quarterback?

There has been a lot of chatter and commotion as of late as to whether or not Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield is an elite NFL quarterback. 

Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com didn’t call Baker Mayfield elite but said he is much better than most people rank him in her podcast version of “Hey, Mary Kay!” mailbag.

She then posed the question of whether or not the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson would be who they are had they been put in Mayfield’s position.

We will never truly know the answer to that question, but the answer would likely be no, they wouldn’t be the players we’ve seen them become over the past three seasons.

"“I think that Baker is much better in terms of his ranking in the NFL that he’s been able to show, because of the regime change,” Cabot said."

Allen and Jackson will forever be linked to the Cleveland Browns quarterback as they were all drafted in the same draft class back in 2018. All three are eligible for contract extensions, which is just a matter of when, not if, and has been another topic of discussion.

Mahomes has set the NFL on fire over the course of time the other three have been in the league. He was drafted a year prior but didn’t start until his second season in 2018.

What those three players have in common that differentiates from Mayfield the most is continuity with their respective head coaches and offensive coordinators.

Mahomes has had Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy for the duration of his career. Josh Allen has had Sean McDermott and Brian Daboll molding him. Jackson has had John Harbaugh as his head coach, Marty Mornhinweg as offensive coordinator in his rookie season, and Greg Roman in that role for the past two seasons.

As for Mayfield, he has had Hue Jackson, Gregg Williams (interim), Freddie Kitchens, and now Kevin Stefanski as his head coaches. He has had the likes of Todd Haley, Kitchens, Todd Monken, and now Alex Van Pelt as his offensive coordinator.

Surely, no quarterback could survive all that turnover, yet here Mayfield is. Despite constant changes and a 2019 season that Cabot says you can “almost throw out the window” when evaluating Baker due to the turmoil behind the scenes, Baker hasn’t flinched one time and is proving why he is the perfect quarterback for this franchise.

People want to talk about how Baker is a “system quarterback” to try and knock the guy, yet in reality, all quarterbacks are system quarterbacks. The system must utilize the quarterbacks’ strengths in order for it to work and finally, Mayfield appears to have that perfect system that suits his skill set.

Now, back to the inevitable extension. Cabot believes the Browns could look to make the extension official somewhere around the 6-8-week mark of the 2021 season (if it isn’t done prior), which will be a full year of Baker “having the lights on” under Stefanski.

While she didn’t answer the question of whether or not Baker is an elite NFL quarterback, she did say he possesses an elite skill set, which is his ability to make a lot of throws on the run, stemming from the keepers and bootlegs designed by Stefanski and Van Pelt.

The jury is still out on if Mayfield is an elite quarterback, but if the second half of last season is any indication of what the future holds, he is well on his way to elite status.