Buccaneers' QB Baker Mayfield 'Hasn't Been Legitimately Good in Years'
We're going to start this article about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and quarterback Baker Mayfield a little bit differently than usual.
And you may find it a bit unorthodox, but while you think about the new Bucs quarterback I want you to close your eyes.
Now, we hope you close your eyes after you read the rest of the instructions and not before, but regardless of how you got here - we want you to imagine a time when Mayfield was a good NFL quarterback.
Remember what the world was like back then.
In that season Mayfield throws for over 3,500 yards has 26 touchdown passes and just eight interceptions.
His touchdown percentage is top 10 among quarterbacks with similar or more pass attempts that season. His interception percentage is the fifth-lowest.
And the Cleveland Browns won 11 regular season games en route to the franchise's first NFL Playoffs win since 2002 followed by a five-point loss to the eventual AFC Champion - and defending Super Bowl Champion - Kansas City Chiefs.
The year is 2020, and less than one full regular season later the Browns will all but throw their 2018 No. 1 overall pick out of the city that one winter previous had hailed him as a franchise hero.
"What's in store for Baker as a Buc? Who knows," asks NFL.com while ranking the NFC South as the worst quarterback division in the league. "This past season, he was bad in Carolina and solid in Los Angeles. He hasn't been legitimately good in years, though there is legit receiver talent around him in Tampa.
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This isn't blind faith and allegiance to Mayfield time here, but let's get a couple of things understood.
Mayfield did what about three dozen quarterbacks hadn't done in the 21 years since Cleveland got its NFL franchise back and the franchise known for ruining quarterbacks did just that.
Then, that same franchise sent him to a team desperate for any glimmer of success in order to save head coach Matt Rhule's job with the Carolina Panthers - and did so with minimal time to learn a playbook, coordinator, and embrace a culture - which was mostly just desperation at that point.
With the Rams, a more stable franchise in spirit, we saw a better Mayfield despite the fact he was operating his third offense in one year and second in that same season with zero ramp-up period.
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And while any amount of years two or more is indeed multiple, let's not lose sight of the fact the President of the United States who was elected the same season Mayfield was leading his team to a Wild Card birth and win hasn't even begun ramping up his re-election campaign yet.
Nobody is saying to put your rent check on Mayfield being the NFL's MVP this season, but it's a shade on the ridiculous side that two franchises that have rotated quarterbacks more than Crowbar Ybor City rotates music genres are getting more benefit of the doubt than a first-round quarterback getting his first real shot at reclaiming his career.
Find David Harrison on Twitter @DHarrison82
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