Baker Mayfield: OU ‘Pied Piper’ aims to perk up putrid Browns’ offense

Cleveland Browns’ No. 1 draft pick Baker Mayfield speaks confidently and purposely about what it takes to be a winner, and so far in his career, his actions and performance on the gridiron have backed that up.

In his freshman collegiate season, as a walk-on at Texas Tech in 2013, Mayfield won the starting quarterback job and started the Red Raiders’ first five games. The Red Raiders won all five games.

Mayfield suffered an injury in game five that season, and was unable to return to action for a month. He returned to action for the final three games of the season, but Texas Tech came up on the short end of the score in all three contests. Although Mayfield started eight games for the Red Raiders that season, he still did not have a scholarship.

It is not known if head coach Kliff Kingsbury, himself a former Texas Tech quarterback, would have granted Mayfield a scholarship his sophomore year, but it didn’t really matter, because Mayfield’s dissatisfaction with his situation at Texas Tech and his strained relationship with Kingsbury and the Red Raider coaching staff resulted in the walk-on quarterback walking away from the Texas Tech football program and electing to transfer.

The rest of the story has been widely publicized. Texas Tech’s loss became Oklahoma’s grand gain. Mayfield enrolled at Oklahoma, his boyhood dream team, and head coach Bob Stoops permitted him to walk on and compete for the quarterback job.

Mayfield had to sit out the 2014 season because of the NCAA transfer rule. Sophomore Trevor Knight was coming off of the game of his career, leading the Sooners to a giant upset over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl the season before. The Sooners also had freshman Cody Thomas in the backup position. The situation remained the same the following season, when Mayfield regained his eligibility.

Mayfield began his Oklahoma career slotted as the No. 3 quarterback behind Knight and Thomas. None of that really mattered to him, however, because he was confident he would earn the starting quarterback job before the start of the 2015 season.

He did exactly what he said he was going to do, and I believe that is what Bob Stoops and then offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley secretly believed that was going to happen all along.

Mayfield started every game but one the three seasons he was at OU and compiled an impressive record of 34-6 as the Sooner starting quarterback (25-2 against Big 12 teams), including leading Oklahoma to two College Playoff appearances and three consecutive Big 12 championships.

The 2017 Heisman Trophy winner is now the property of the Cleveland Browns of the NFL, and the question everyone is wondering is: Is Mayfield the answer at quarterback and the guy who will finally lead the woeful Browns back to respectability and relevance in the National Football League?

Browns’ general manager John Dorsey — the same John Dorsey who traded up last year as the GM of the Kansas City Chiefs to take another phenomenal, big-arm Big 12 quarterback, Patrick Mahomes of Texas Tech, with the 10th pick in the first round of the NFL Draft — certainly believes so. In fact, he’s counting on it.

The Cleveland coaching and scouting staff was not completely sold on Mayfield in the beginning, but the more they watched him and were around him, at the NFL Scouting Combine, at Oklahoma pro day and in personal interviews, the more they came to know that the former Sooner and consensus All-American had all the personal qualities and football skills and intellect they were looking for.

At Mayfield’s pro day at Oklahoma, Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson was impressed with how the players who were there to participate in the workout with the former Sooner QB quickly ran to him to be by his side, echoing Mayfield’s rallying cry as he entered the training facility.

That prompted Jackson to refer to Mayfield as “the ‘Pied Piper’ of Oklahoma football.”

Mayfield was believed to be the top draft choice not only of the Browns, but also the New York Jets, who owned the No. 3 overall pick, and the Denver Broncos, with the No. 5 pick.

One member of the Cleveland staff told ESPN staff writer Pat McManamon that Mayfield checked all the boxes and had that “it” factor.

Cleveland saw that Mayfield completed 43 passes with only six interceptions this past season and completed 70.5 percent of his pass attempts. In looking deeper into those numbers, GM Dorsey and his staff saw that Mayfield has quick feet that enabled him to drop back quickly, which “gives him a couple extra seconds to see the field, extend the play and make those plays downfield,” Dorsey said.

According to Tim Couch, a former No. 1 overall pick at quarterback by the Browns (in 1999) and currently a color analyst on Cleveland preseason TV broadcasts:

"“Mayfield will bring some positive energy to the team. He’s very sharp mentally. Accurate, tough, a leader, competitive. He can play. He checks every box of a high draft pick except height."

The height issue (Mayfield is listed at 6-feet, 1-inch, considered undersized for an NFL quarterback) is not a concern for Crouch.

"“It’s more about pocket awareness and footwork and finding lanes to throw,” he said."

A factor that separates Mayfield from the other quarterback prospects in this year’s NFL Draft is his football intellect, his ability to read defenses, process information and make something out of a play when nothing is there, with his confidence and creativity.

"“From a football IQ standpoint, Baker Mayfield is as good as I have been around,” Jackson said."