There is no official word on whether Baker Mayfield will play this Sunday for the Cleveland Browns.
But if he happens to have a little downtime coming up, Trent Dilfer has a suggestion for him.
Dilfer thinks Mayfield should watch films of Drew Brees and follow the example of the future Hall of Famer.
On the surface, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but Dilfer’s rationale might spark some discussion.
Speaking about NFL quarterbacks in general, Dilfer told K92.3 The Fan’s Ken Carman.
“There are system enhancers and there are system guides. And people (say) only the enhancers are elite. But I always use Drew Brees, a future Hall of Famer and one of the greatest to ever play. He was still a product of his system. …Especially in the middle to later part of his career, he was never one who was going to save the play call. He was going to maximize the play call.”
Dilfer believes Baker Mayfield is a system guide, just like he thinks Brees was a guide.
And Mayfield would do well to master Kevin Stefanski’s system and not try to enhance it by being someone he is not.
Dilfer’s Assessment of Mayfield Unchanged
Dilfer was engaged in the same conversation as half of Cleveland, i.e. what to do about Baker Mayfield?
He believes the Browns have not seen enough of a healthy Mayfield to make a good decision about his contract extension.
But he doesn’t think they have much of an option as far as bringing him back.
Dilfer, a former ESPN analyst, doesn’t think there is another quarterback the Browns would do better with.
And that means the team has to convince Mayfield to run the Browns’ system as designed.
Early last season, Dilfer told the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen that Mayfield was trying to be someone he is not.
And even though Mayfield and the Browns went on to the playoffs, he repeated that assertion on 92.3 The Fan:
“(Mayfield) will be a Super Bowl quarterback because he plays like Drew Brees. He tries to play it like some of these system enhancers… Mahomes, Lamar, Kyler Murray… there are some others… It’s not who he is and he is not going to play to his maximum.”
In short, Trent Dilfer believes the Browns can win with Mayfield if they convince him to play within himself.
Is Baker Mayfield Trying To Do Too Much?
Without a doubt, Baker Mayfield relishes the role of the Cleveland Browns’ savior.
But is he trying to do too much, and is that actually a detriment to the team?
NFL writer Stephen Ruiz recently offered an analysis of that assertion for The Ringer.
Ruiz describes a play on which Mayfield looks past his wide-open first option to look for a deeper target.
The deeper player was well-covered and Mayfield winds up scrambling for barely a yard.
Mayfield is scrambling more frequently than in his first 3 seasons, often after passing up early, open targets.
His passer rating drops 30 points when he holds the ball longer than 2.5 seconds, meaning Mayfield’s first option is probably the best.
Stefanski takes the blame for his offense, but more than one analyst is questioning Mayfield’s decisions.
Putting aside his Drew Brees take, maybe Dilfer is on to something when it comes to Baker Mayfield’s best game.
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