Baker Mayfield and the conundrum of comfort in chaos

Some quarterbacks simply are who they are. Those of us in the football world pontificate about development, about scheme fits and landing spots, and project that quarterbacks that need some refinement will get that in the NFL. They’ll get “coached up.” However, sometimes that does not happen, and they are the same player in the NFL that they were in college. When Week 2 of the 2020 NFL season kicks off in a few hours, we’ll see perhaps the latest example of that from a former first-overall selection.

I’m talking of course about Baker Mayfield.

A few years ago when Mayfield was tearing up record books and throwing darts for the Oklahoma Sooners, his production was driving him towards a Heisman Trophy and the top of the draft board. That was due to some of the boxes he checks as a quarterback: Accuracy, athleticism, and yes the competitive drive that you need to excel at the position. I’ve said before of Mayfield that he does not just want to beat you, he wants to end you. Think of snubbed handshakes against Kansas, or stories of Mayfield saving critical articles to his phone for motivation. Sometimes the great ones have that self-motivational chip. Mayfield seems to have that.

But as this was playing out, there was something else that we saw on the field. Something I termed the “conundrum of comfort in chaos.” I first wrote about it back in 2016, and subsequently in 2018 and even last season. There were many examples of Mayfield vacating clean pockets and trying to create off of structure. It worked for him. Often. When he was at Oklahoma. But since moving to the NFL, it has been an issue.

It even showed up last week:

Now there might be something in the back of Mayfield’s own mind: His struggles from clean pockets. As Doug Farrar pointed out recently, the QB who struggled the most last season when kept clean?

Mayfield.

Which might have led to moments like this from last week:

So when you settle in tonight to watch the Cleveland Browns and Mayfield take on the Cincinnati Bengals and another first-overall QB in Joe Burrow, pay attention to what Mayfield does when the pocket is clean. That might tell the story of what Ohio team wins this game.