Baker Mayfield Eye Test

By STEVE KING

My last reason – and, admittedly – one of the biggest for claiming that Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield would rebound and have a super season in 2020 was the fact I saw him do something very impressive.

That is, like only one other quarterback I had ever seen, the great John Elway in 1982 while with Stanford, I watched Mayfield, then from Oklahoma in 2017, come into Columbus and almost single-handedly beat the Ohio State Buckeyes with his pinpoint passing. It was so very impressive, and it was my thought that if he did it once, he could do it again.

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It was as simple as that.

Nowhere did you see the term “analytics” being part of the equation, did you?

Shame on me. Naughty, naughty.

No analytics, no way these new Browns deep thinkers will buy into it. Isn’t that correct, too?

Sure, it is.

When analytics first came into sports, including football, and were embraced by many teams, including the Sashi Brown-led Browns several years ago, I was not a believer. I was skeptical, at best.

I’ve changed my mind since then. Now I am not the least bit skeptical. I know how much of a help analytics can be – and should be for every single team with any sense – in determining the worthiness of players, schemes, plays and just about everything else.

Still, I also realize the importance of the human component. It has – or at least should have – a say in this as well.

And in my case, seeing what Mayfield did – passing in a real and literal sense, what I consider the all-important Baker Mayfield eye test – convinced me, and should be convincing enough evidence for others.

Too many people in sports, including football, ignore the eye test. I think that’s wrong – very wrong.

And I won’t back off that – not one bit – and neither should the Browns.

We’ll see if I’m right.

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