NFL Playoffs: Stakes higher than ever for old pals Baker Mayfield, Patrick Mahomes
Photos: Charles LeClaire, Jasen Vinlove, Jay Biggerstaff - USA TODAY Sports | Illustration: John E. Hoover, SI Sooners
When Baker Mayfield was a freshman at Texas Tech, coach Kliff Kingsbury asked him to host a certain recruit coming to Lubbock for his official visit.
That’s when Mayfield struck up a relationship Patrick Mahomes.
They meet again on Sunday in Kansas City, having traveled circuitous paths to reunite.
- Mahomes had committed to Tech before his official visit, and Mayfield — a walk-on out of Lake Travis High School in Austin — became the first player to walk on at a Power 5 school and win the starting QB job.
- After he was Kingsbury’s immediate starter as a true freshman in 2013, Mayfield never got the scholarship offer he wanted, so he left Lubbock and enrolled at Oklahoma — also as a walk-on.
- While Mahomes was taking over the starting job at Tech, Mayfield sat out the 2014 season as an OU transfer, then won the job in 2015.
- They met again in Lubbock in 2016, with OU winning a 66-59 classic. Mayfield had 545 yards passing and seven TDs while Mahomes threw for 734 yards and had five total touchdowns.
- Mahomes was the 10th overall pick of the Chiefs in 2017.
- Mayfield became the first former walk-on to win the Heisman Trophy and became the No. 1 overall pick of the Browns in 2018.
- Mahomes was named NFL Most Valuable Player in 2018, won the Super Bowl in 2019-20 and went 14-1 as a starter this season.
- Mayfield this year led the Browns to their best season since 1994 (11-5) and last week beat Pittsburgh for their first road playoff win since 1969.
“Obviously it’s cool to get to play against him in such a big game in the playoffs and everything like that,” Mahomes said Wednesday during a video press conference. “I’ve known him for a long time, since I was a senior in high school. And to be able to play on this stage is going to be special. He went to Oklahoma, I went to Texas Tech. He got the better of me in college, so I’ll try to do my best to win in the NFL.”
They’ve already met once in their professional careers. While Mayfield was a rookie and Mahomes was building his MVP resume, Kansas City beat Cleveland 37-21.
“It is always fun to play friendly competition and playing against people you are familiar with,” Mayfield said Wednesday. “He has (beaten) me so far in the league, so I have to see what I can do.”
It’s interesting to wonder where these guys would be if Kingsbury had granted Mayfield that scholarship after Mayfield won Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year honors.
Mayfield would have stayed in Lubbock — at least in 2014. Oklahoma would have had to choose between Trevor Knight and Cody Thomas as its starter in 2015. Mahomes might have honored his verbal commitment and still beat out Davis Webb, or he might have gone elsewhere. Mayfield without Lincoln Riley probably wouldn’t have won the Heisman or been the No. 1 pick. With different coaching in college, or even a different timeline under Kingsbury, maybe Mahomes’ path to the NFL looks different, too.
And we’d have never had that 2016 showdown in Lubbock, which set an NCAA record for most total yards in a single game with 1,708 (each team incredibly compiled the same total: 854).
“We had to score every single drive in the second half to win that game,” Mayfield said. “I know we scored right before halftime. I did a half-bootleg to the right, threw a touchdown to Nick Basquine right before halftime. We had to score every single drive in the second half just to win because Pat threw the ball 80-something times and had 800 yards (an FBS record 819) by himself. It was an unbelievable game and unbelievable atmosphere. Just the back and forth is something that I won’t forget.”
It was two elite quarterbacks cutting up two lousy defenses. Defenses have been a little better in the NFL, but both players have found success.
Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield in 2018
Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Mayfield has three of the Browns’ top nine single-season passing yardage marks, ranks No. 3 and 4 in club history in single-season completion percentage, and No. 5 and 6 in single-season TD passes.
Mahomes has shattered every major Kansas City passing record, ranking 1 or 2 in almost everything. He’s thrown for more than 4,000 yards all three seasons under coach Andy Reid.
Mayfield, now under his fourth head coach in Kevin Stefanski, has thrived despite far less continuity. He had a promising rookie season, then took a step back in 2019. This year he’s been better than ever, with just one interception — best among all NFL starting quarterbacks — during the second half of the season.
Mahomes, on the other hand, has risen to all-time heights. At the age of 22, he became the ninth NFL quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards and just the third to throw 50 touchdown passes. Then last year, he delivered Chiefs fans their first Super Bowl title in 50 years and was named the game’s MVP.
That’s where Mayfield is trying to get to. Mahomes has become the new standard for all NFL quarterbacks — not just guys who hosted him on his college visits.
“For starters, you could go into the physical attributes that Pat has — he has everything you could possibly want,” Mayfield said. “His arm strength is unbelievable, but just the different arm angles and things he is able to do — I know people talk about his no-look passes and all of that, but to be able to change his arm angle, you can see why he was such an incredible athlete in baseball and basketball, as well.
“He is just able to do things that a lot of quarterbacks can’t do. He sat out pretty much the whole first rookie year and just took everything in. Patrick is extremely smart, intelligent picking up that system. You can just tell guys want to play for Patrick, but when he is on top of his game like he is mentally, that pushes those guys even more.”
