Oklahoma Football: Is Baker Mayfield worthy of first round pick in 2018?
Oklahoma football’s Baker Mayfield has proven himself in almost every way at the college level but how do NFL scouts perceive him?
Some lucky NFL team could get Oklahoma football’s Baker Mayfield in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. However, it’s unlikely that a player of his caliber would fall that far.
Seeing that former Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes was taken early in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, that should give Mayfield and Oklahoma fans hope for a higher draft slot. Mahomes’ draft spot shows that Big 12 scheme quarterbacks still have top-notch respect from NFL scouts if they can perform on the field.
Mayfield is one of the smaller quarterbacks in college football, though. At 6-foot-1, he’s not the “prototypical” size you expect from a star quarterback, but shorter quarterbacks are becoming more and more common at the NFL level. In fact, Russell Wilson, Drew Brees and Tyrod Taylor are all the same height or shorter than Mayfield.
Moreover, former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel always comes to mind when thinking of elusive but short quarterbacks in college football.
There are few quarterbacks that have a better chance of winning the Heisman Trophy in 2017 than Mayfield. The only names that really come to mind are USC’s Sam Darnold, Washington’s Jake Browning and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson. Yet Jackson won it last year and history proves it’s incredibly difficult to win two years in a row.
Darnold, on the other hand, is far less proven than Mayfield. Adding a Heisman Trophy to Mayfield’s pedigree would only help his resume with NFL teams to get his draft stock higher.
Over Mayfield’s two seasons with Oklahoma, he’s thrown for nearly 8,000 yards and 76 touchdowns with only 15 interceptions. That’s an incredible stat line, no matter what conference it’s in. If those type of stats can translate at the NFL level, Mayfield can start for almost any team.
Oklahoma quarterbacks have a track record of mixed success in the NFL. Sam Bradford and Landry Jones are the last two to see any action with any NFL team. However, Bradford has had much more exposure than Jones. Mayfield seems to be somewhat of a different breed than the usual Oklahoma quarterback. He’s more mobile and able to extend plays better than really anyone in the country right now. That’s a valuable skill to possess in the pro game.
According to Walter Football, Mayfield ranks as the 12th-best quarterback in the 2018 NFL Draft QB class. He’s projected to be taken between the third and fifth rounds of the NFL Draft. He’s still ahead of big names like Browning, Kyle Allen and Brett Rypien but it seems like he should get a little more respect than that.
The biggest things that Mayfield needs to improve include the consistency of his field vision and the ability to step up in the pocket. His size limits his overall abilities to actually step up and make all the throws necessary to be successful.
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It’s hard to think that quarterbacks like Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham, Florida State’s Deondre Francois and Marshall’s Chase Litton could be consistently ranked ahead of Mayfield in prospect rankings. Mayfield is much more proven and potent than all of those quarterbacks. We’ll have to see how he improves in 2017 but there’s still a chance that he could be worth a first round pick when it’s all said and done.