Brady Quinn On Baker Mayfield: "He’s One Of The Most Accurate Passers Of Any Level That I’ve Ever Seen"
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield told reporters that he puts more pressure on himself than anyone else, so adding any is unnecessary. That didn't stop former Browns quarterback Brady Quinn from trying when he spoke to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com.
The current Fox Sports, CBS HQ Analyst who also cohost of "The Blitz" on Sirius XM told cleveland.com:
Quinn has always been high on the former Oklahoma Sooner is extremely confident in Mayfield heading into year three for a number of reasons.
“He’s deadly accurate. I was combing through his throws preparing for the Big 12 championship game vs. TCU and I said on the broadcast, ‘he’s one of the most accurate passers of any level that I’ve ever seen.’ We kept going through game after game after game and a lot of people will say, ‘Well it’s Lincoln Riley’s system’ or ‘It’s the Big 12, they don’t play defense.’ I’m like ‘Dude, he had like four incompletions and even those four incompletions he put it in a spot where his wide receiver got a hand on the ball, but it was away from the defender and maybe should’ve been caught.'"
Quinn also addressed what he believes are mitigating circumstances in Mayfield's second year struggles, especially when it came to interceptions. His interception percentage jumped from 2.9 percent his rookie year to 3.9 percent last year.
“He had an offense that introduced some new pieces,’’ he said. “You’re trying to get on the same page with a wide receiver and people tend to think it happens over one offseason. To be elite in the NFL, it takes years of that, being able to understand a guy’s body language and develop that rapport.
Could that maybe have been a little bit of it, maybe not seeing Odell play quite as well? Was it a potential of him not being 100%? I do think those things play a bit of a role.’’
He also noted issues with the offensive line that the Browns hope to have corrected with investment in Jack Conklin and Jedrick Wills this past offseason to play their tackle positions, replacing Greg Robinson and Chris Hubbard. Hubbard figures to be the swing tackle this season.
Quinn is a big believer in Bill Callahan and what Kevin Stefanski's offensive system intends to do. He mentioned its ties to Mike Shanahan's offense and what Kyle Shanahan was able to do last season with the San Francisco 49ers.
Given that Quinn is so high on Mayfield, it's not a huge surprise that he has the Browns in the playoffs. If Mayfield is anywhere near as good as Quinn believes, given the talent the Browns have at their disposal, it would be difficult to see how they wouldn't win enough games to make the postseason.
