Welcome to the Baker Mayfield experience

As Public Enemy frontman Chuck D. would say, “Here come the drums.” Quarterback Baker Mayfield coming to the Los Angeles Rams after being claimed off of waivers feels that dramatic.

With starting quarterback Matthew Stafford shut down for the season after placing him on the injured reserve list, the Rams added a bit more depth to their roster by snapping up the former Carolina Panthers signal-caller after he was waived by the team. 

“Yeah, so when you have a player of his caliber come available and you look at just the circumstances in the situation surrounding our quarterback room, we felt like it was the right move for us,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said during a press conference via zoom. “He’s a guy that I’ve always respected his game (and I) liked a lot of things that he brings to the table.” 

The obvious question is what does all this mean? Will Mayfield, the former overall No. 1 selection in the 2018 NFL Draft, be just an added ingredient until the end of the season or is this part of a plan for the Rams to add an intriguing element to the quarterback position going forward? McVay said wasn’t actively looking to add to their quarterback depth. Mayfield just kind of fell in their lap, he said. 

“No, it’s really a circumstance of he ends up getting his release from the (Carolina) Panthers,” McVay remarked. “Obviously, (QB) Matthew’s (Stafford) on IR (Injured Reserved). (QB) John (Wolford’s) neck is a questionable situation. So you had to address it at some point and it just so happened that the timing kind of worked out in our favor. But it worked out and we feel good about it.”

Mayfield is still a very young quarterback with this year just being his fifth playing in the NFL. When you look at his numbers, he’s had some success as a quarterback in this league, passing for 15,905 yards for his short career. In his first four years in the league (all with the Cleveland Browns), Mayfield threw for over 3,000 yards. 

And yet, there’s something that has kept Mayfield from truly flourishing. He did not pan out to be “that guy” for the Browns, the team that drafted him. Mayfield, who won the Heisman Trophy as a star quarterback for the University of Oklahoma, certainly did not turn out to be the right fit with the Panthers. 

His tenure with Carolina lasted all of seven games before he was officially cut by the Panthers on Dec.5. Rams general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay obviously see something in Mayfield that they believe can help the team, short-term or long-term. 

“What I’ve always liked is he’s got the ability to be able to make the throws in the pocket (and) out of the pocket,” McVay said. “He can throw on platform (and) off platform. He’s got a great upper body twitch. He’s got the ability to be able to create with his legs. From my interaction with him and even just watching him from afar, (he’s) really smart, sharp, cerebral player that has a great competitiveness to him that you can’t help but like.”

There are several things working in Mayfield’s favor that will probably help him get acclimated to doing things the Rams way.  

As a two-time college walk-on, you know Mayfield is super competitive. The second trait is that he’s mobile. Any quarterback who comes into the league now should have some wheels to complement their passing game. Mayfield has both. 

The third thing you have to like about Mayfield is that he is still a young man. He has plenty of time to develop into an elite quarterback. On the flip side of the coin, Mayfield could be running out of time and playing options. This is Mayfield’s fifth year in the league, and already he’s on his third team. 

His quarterback rating for those seven games (1,313 yards, 6 TD, 6 INT) was 18.3, by far the worst of his career. That’s not to mention all the times that he has been beaten up in the pocket.  

Durability only counts when you get hit less. And so far, Mayfield has been thrown down to the turf way too many times. In 2021, Mayfield was tagged 43 times for sacks. He’s already been sacked 153 times in his career.  

But if there is an offensive and quarterback guru who can get the most out of him as a player, it is McVay. Whether that’s just until the end of the regular season or a possible long-term solution as a backup, remains to be seen. McVay is not hedging which way he is leaning towards, except to say how much he admires Mayfield’s game. 

“Yeah, I would say I’ve always really liked him,” said McVay. “What I can say in all sincerity is that there’s an excitement about being able to work with him for what we know is five more weeks. Whether he plays in five games or four games is to be determined, but I’m excited about that and I think as we continue to accumulate that information that will answer itself.”    

One of the appealing things about Mayfield is that he does bring a bit of swag or ultra-confidence with him. That’s part of the leadership qualities that McVay likes about Mayfield. 

“I think I see a competitor, a guy that knows how to connect with all of his teammates,” McVay said. “I think a guy that is unfazed by good or bad, just stays nice and steady and even-keeled and I like the fieriness, that’s kind of what I see. But again, I’m just getting around him for the first time in some of these competitive settings that you kind of get a chance to really view that.”