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Baker Mayfield’s Stock Soaring With Late-Season Surge For Cleveland Browns

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Lost in the drama and the chaos of the Cleveland Browns’ 47-42 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in a wild Monday Night shootout in Cleveland was another major step taken by Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield in his ongoing quest to prove to the team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2018 that he is indeed the franchise quarterback the Browns drafted him to become.

That hasn’t always been the case. Last year, for example, when Mayfield staggered his way to a 78.8 quarterback rating, which was worse than any NFL starter not named Andy Dalton. Mayfield also threw more interceptions (21) than any starter not named Jameis Winston, while completing just 59.4% of his passes, the worst of any starter not named Josh Allen.

This year, with the arrival of Coach of the Year candidate Kevin Stefanski, Mayfield has made significant strides in his development, just in time to impress his bosses, who following the season must decide whether they will pick up Mayfield’s fifth-year option.

In the loss to the Ravens Monday, Mayfield orchestrated two late-game touchdown drives, and threw for a season-high 343 yards, the third-highest total of his career. In his last six games he’s thrown for 1,393 yards, eight touchdown passes, and one interception.

The one interception was a crippler, coming late in the third quarter Monday night, at the Browns’ 13-yard-line. It led to a touchdown on Baltimore’s next play, turning a 28-20 Ravens lead into a 34-20 lead.

Stefanski took the blame for the interception with his play call.

“I put Baker in a bad spot,” said Stefanski, who applauded the way his team responded from that turnover.

“It’s easy to feel the momentum and energy taken away from you (when something like that happens),” he said. “But I didn’t get that sense from (Mayfield) and the guys. They knew what they had to do and showed great resolve.”

That’s the only interception Mayfield has thrown in his last six games. In his last seven games he has a 106.9 quarterback rating and has thrown 13 touchdown passes and two interceptions.

“He’s playing at a high level,” said Stefanski. “He doesn’t lack for confidence, but in a good way. His comfort level is growing. He comes in early and stays late. We’re seeing the fruits of his labor.”

After finishing 31st in the NFL last year with a quarterback rating of 78.8, Mayfield is at 96.6 this year, which ranks 12th in the NFL and sixth in the AFC. Perhaps even more significant, he has the highest quarterback rating in the AFC Central, ahead of Lamar Jackson (95.1), Ben Roethlisberger (94.9), and Joe Burrow (89.8).

At the start of this season, Mayfield’s performance was deemed one of the keys to the Browns’ season. Not only as it pertained to the team’s success, but also as a barometer in relation to his long-term viability in Cleveland. It did not begin well.

In their first game of the season, Stefanski’s first as an NFL head coach, the Browns got hammered in Baltimore, losing 38-6. Mayfield completed just 53% of his passes and had a dismal quarterback rating of 65. But in the next three games, all of them wins, over Cincinnati, Washington and Dallas, the Browns averaged almost 40 points per game and Mayfield posted three consecutive triple-digit ratings of 110.6, 117.3, and 100.

Then the roller coaster went in the other direction. In an 11-point win over Indianapolis and a 31-point loss to Pittsburgh Mayfield threw four interceptions, was sacked five times, and, in the Steelers game, posted a season-low 54.9 quarterback rating.

He followed that with a spectacular showing against Cincinnati in which he completed all but six of his 28 pass attempts, throwing five touchdown passes, the last of those coming with 11 second left in the game to give Cleveland a 37-34 victory.

Next were three mediocre performances, in a loss to the Raiders and wins over the Texans and Eagles. Mayfield was a little better (116.7 rating) in a 27-25 win over nearly-winless Jaguars.

Then came his back-to-back masterpieces in back-to-back games against quality opponents, Tennessee and Baltimore. In those two games Mayfield threw for 667 yards, completing 66% of his passes, with six touchdown passes and one interception. In the 41-35 win at Tennessee, in which Mayfield had a season-high 147 quarterback rating, he became the first Browns quarterback since Otto Graham in 1951 to throw four touchdown passes in the first half, as the Browns led 38-7 after two quarters.

Monday night, in the loss to the Ravens, Mayfield almost led to Browns to a come-from-behind victory. With three games remaining, his roller coaster season is in ascension again. Barring any disasters in the last three games against the Giants, Jets and Steelers, it would appear that Mayfield has re-established himself as the Browns’ quarterback of the present and the future.

“You want the trigger man to be playing free and with confidence, and I see that with Baker,” Stefanski said. “He understands he has to do it again this week. These challenges keep coming at you.”

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