Baker Mayfield made a dent on the Cleveland Browns record book in addition to setting the rookie record for passing touchdowns in a season.
Baker Mayfield capped off a historic year for the Cleveland Browns by tying and ultimately capturing the record for touchdown passes in a season for a rookie with 27, passing Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson, both of which will end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Impressive enough on its own, Mayfield was able to do it despite not playing the first the first two and a half games of the season as Tyrod Taylor was the starting entering the year. The Browns have a quarterback that finished his rookie year by matching two Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Not a bad place to be headed to 2019.
There are any number of distinctions that are impressive just as it relates to being a Brown, who have been seemingly put themselves under some kind of quarterback interdict for the past two decades. Perhaps as a result of the curse of Tim Couch and how poorly they handled what was clearly a talented quarterback, they had to endure everything from Doug Pederson, now a Super Bowl winning head coach, to Deshone Kizer, who can’t play dead for the Green Bay Packers.
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Mayfield has reached multiple team marks as a rookie and likely would’ve broken them all if he simply played the full season. His 3,725 yards and 27 touchdowns are each fifth all time in Browns history. As long as he stays healthy, it’s a pretty safe bet he’ll own both records next year, surpassing Brian Sipe in 1980 where he had 4,132 passing yards and 30 touchdowns. His completion percentage of 63.7 is in the top ten as well.
A testament to both Mayfield and further evidence of the Browns quarterback futility the past 30 years, he should own the whole record book before his second contract beyond going after more NFL records.
These accomplishments don’t guarantee anything, but they certainly suggest a great future for both Mayfield and the Browns. Whether it’s his talent or people trying to make a living out of his behavior, Mayfield has taken the league by storm. Constantly a topic on sports fight shows, he’s difficult to miss.
Despite losing the finale, Mayfield has made an incredible case for himself as the Offensive Rookie of the Year. He has had one of the best rookie seasons by a quarterback in NFL history other than Russell Wilson’s, but he’s also led a team that forgot what winning looked like and helped them win seven games. Whether they want to give it to Mayfield, Saquon Barkley for his 2,000 total yards or split it, both players had historic seasons.
Now with success comes expectations and no one knows that better than Mayfield. The harshest critic of himself, he embraces and fuels himself on doubt and thrives on proving people wrong. Now, he has to prove his rookie year wasn’t a fluke and lead the Browns to their first playoff appearance since 2002.
Mayfield owns a lot of that, putting the onus on himself. He has talked openly about how he feels he was brought to Cleveland to change things and so far, those changes are positive. 7-8-1 in his first year with eyes on the playoffs and the division heading to his second. The records and individual marks are great and certainly earned, but Mayfield is wired in a way that he will likely focus almost entirely on the plays he didn’t make, the opportunities he missed. So, now it’s about seeing how much better he can get.