Is Baker Mayfield turning into Jared Goff 2.0?

Baker Mayfield is in a good spot on the Browns offense, so what has Matt Harmon making comparisons with the Lions quarterback?

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Video Transcript

[BAT HITS BALL, CROWD CHEERS]

MATT HARMON: Baker Mayfield leads the NFL in yards per attempt on screen passes. Would you like to guess what his yards per attempt on screen passes are?

DALTON DEL DON: Well it's got to be super-high. So I'll just say 10.

MATT HARMON: It's 13.2.

DALTON DEL DON: On screen, yeah, wow. They're doing it all-- wow, yeah.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, that's three times-- number two in the NFL, by the way, is Dak Prescott at 8.8. Well, obviously Baker-- that's a huge gap.

DALTON DEL DON: Going to make my 10 guests feel better to, my 10 guests. Yeah, wow, it blew that away. Yeah, I mean, it's weird.

I mean, they scored 89 points last week, the Chargers game-- I'm sorry, the Browns game combined. And Beckham saw three targets. I mean, what is going on? What is happening here? I mean, I know you could be saying the separated shoulder is affecting his deep throws. That's your only hope if you're a Browns fan right now because Mayfield, it's ugly.

Beckham is Josh [INAUDIBLE] buy low air yards guy this week. And I can see it in a track meet, maybe, against Arizona. But Arizona is also real, real, real quietly a run funnel defense. And I just expect more of the same, more Nick Chubb, more Kareem Hunt. And you're really taking a leap of faith at this point if you're relying on Beckham.

I mean, hopefully it's just been time off, and they'll both get healthier. And obviously, I'm not dropping him in fantasy leagues. But man, I mean, it's tough to throw him in a DFS lineup now and just point to the air yards.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, exactly. Really, that's all you would be doing is, like, well, the air yards are there. And I get it. That might actually work out.

The thing with-- god, it's just like, his first return was so optimistic. Him and Baker were on the same page, the weighted opportunity was all there. Targets, air yards, everything was there for Beckham. And then obviously, against the Vikings, Baker just can't hit the guy when he's wide open for the game-sealing play. That was obviously a nightmare.

And then last week, we kind of expected-- the Browns basically did exactly what we would expect them to do, which is they ran the hell out of the ball. They got David Njoku screen passes, stuff like that. Basically, that's how you want to beat the Chargers' defense. You're not trying to take the top off with Odell Beckham or anything like that.

And can Baker Mayfield even take the top off a defense? It doesn't seem like it from this point.

The schedule's not great going forward. They've got the Cardinals this week. You mentioned they're definitely more of a team that you want to run the ball on. They got the Broncos, the Steelers, Bengals. Bengals have been OK defensively. Patriots are kind of OK defensively. And then finally, it lightens up in November with the Lions.

Man, I feel like this is so obvious to see that-- let me run this take by you. I feel like Baker Mayfield is just basically-- we just talked about Jared Goff. I feel like Baker Mayfield is Jared Goff. Like, Jared Goff is fine. I think Baker Mayfield is fine. He's not actively hurting the team. But is he actively--

Because the situation is so good. Who couldn't thrive in this Browns offense when they have two of the best running backs in the NFL? He's schemed open, wide open windows, all this stuff. Everything we always used to say about Jared Goff.

Now, Baker Mayfield is basically that guy. And now we just have to wonder, will the Browns have-- like, everybody's giving the Rams credit for, oh, they go make this aggressive trade for Matthew Stafford right now because it's working out. But they spent the last two years before that giving Jared Goff the money and toiling around with Jared Goff. I really wonder what the Browns will do with this decision with Mayfield here.

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah. Mayfield was looking like a bust before Stefanski took over. And you mentioned it, the great situation and what may be the best offensive line in football, just the running game. And man, you look at the YPA, a stat always point to. But if he's benefiting that much from the screen pass, then, yeah, that's more of a situational thing there.

And just, like I said, the hope is the left shoulder is what's affecting his deep throws lately. And he has a cannon. He actually does throw the ball far, if needed. But just the accuracy has just been a disaster. And right now, you can't argue with the comp. Being a Goff, what do you when the second contract comes up?

MATT HARMON: Yeah. I think Baker Mayfield's probably a little bit better creating out of structure than Jared Goff is. But I mean, the structure really does benefit Mayfield so much, it's hard to separate the two.

And he's been-- he was really good in those like improvisational moments as a rookie, more of the off-script stuff, awful in year two. And then, yeah, I mean, with Stefanski, it's been about one full year's worth from the time that things started to click later last year till now worth of good production in this offense.

But yeah, I mean it's just tough to-- like, this team is ready. It's loaded. And I just don't know. I've always said I will believe that a team will willingly walk into the quarterback wilderness out of quarterback purgatory when I see it.

The Rams literally did not do that. They went with Jared Goff. And then when they had an opportunity to go from the quarterback wilderness to the quarterback-- I don't know, whatever you want to call this, the-- Oasis-ish with Matthew Stafford here-- then they make that move.

So I don't know if the Browns have the stones to do it, because I don't know if any team has the stones to do it, especially the Browns, who have-- they should be-- based on their history, they would have loved to have Baker Mayfield 10 years ago. You know what I mean?

DALTON DEL DON: Totally. Props to you though, because you really did call the Jared Goff thing at the time. And you knew the franchise was not going to do it. And they re-signed him and regretted it immediately.

And Goff was a great example of a guy whose YPA's boosted from his situation. I mean, that was totally a product of the McVay offense. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens. But yeah, the Browns are-- almost certainly, they're going to look into bringing Mayfield back.

But yeah, he might be the weakness of an otherwise Super Bowl-contending team right now. But hopefully it's just that left shoulder that gets better, and he continues to make an improvement. But right now, it's been very frustrating, no question.

[BAT HITS BALL, CROWD CHEERS]