As we gear up to the start of the NFL season, Football Absurdity is going to bring you a comprehensive breakdown of every notable player that will be available in fantasy football drafts. We only look at the past three seasons for a player. Baker Mayfield had an extremely disappointing 2019 fantasy football campaign, to say the least, but what about his 2020 campaign? Are better things on the horizon for Mayfield in Cleveland?
Baker Mayfield ADP and AAV:
Draft Price: QB16, 129 overall
Average Auction Value: $2
Baker Mayfield Statistics:
| Year | 2019 | 2018 |
| G | 16 | 14 |
| GS | 16 | 13 |
| Att | 534 | 486 |
| Comp | 317 | 310 |
| Comp% | 59.4% | 63.8% |
| Yds | 3827 | 3725 |
| TD | 22 | 27 |
| Int | 21 | 14 |
| Att/G | 33.4 | 34.7 |
| Comp/G | 19.8 | 22.1 |
| Yds/G | 239.2 | 266.1 |
| TD/G | 1.4 | 1.9 |
| INT/G | 1.3 | 1.0 |
| Year | 2019 | 2018 |
| Ru Att | 28 | 39 |
| Ru Yds | 141 | 131 |
| Ru TD | 3 | 0 |
| YPC | 5.0 | 3.4 |
| Ru Att/G | 1.8 | 2.8 |
| Ru Yd/G | 8.8 | 9.4 |
| Year | 2019 | 2018 |
| 4 PPTD | 229.2 | 240.1 |
| 6 PPTD | 273.2 | 294.1 |
| 4 PPTD/G | 14.3 | 17.2 |
| 6 PPTD/G | 17.08 | 21.01 |
| Year | 2019 | 2018 |
| Air Yards | 4539 | 4520 |
| aDOT | 8.50 | 9.30 |
| aDOT+ | 0.32 | 1.12 |
| Y/A | 7.17 | 7.66 |
| TD% | 4.1% | 5.6% |
| INT% | 3.9% | 2.9% |
| Sacks | 40 | 25 |
| Yds/Sack | 7.13 | 6.92 |
(aDOT+ is the QB’s average depth of target compared to league average)
Baker Mayfield Overview:
Things didn’t go how Baker Mayfield, and the greater Cleveland area, hoped they would in 2019. Baker’s touchdown rate plummeted, his yards per attempt and completion rate dipped, and his interception rate went up an entire percentage point. A lot of that had to do with a truly dreadful offensive line and poor decision making that caused Baker’s sack rate to spike, as well. The Browns addressed the offensive line in the draft, adding Jedrick Wills to help protect Baker. Hopefully that, with the addition of Austin Hooper should help this offense, and Baker Mayfield, take the step forward in 2020 that we had hoped for in 2019.
Baker Mayfield Draft Strategy:
Baker Mayfield Auction Value: $1
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming late June)
Baker Mayfield’s draft value has taken a massive dip in 2020 as compared to 2019. Last season, many had him as a top-five quarterback, and he was top-seven at worst in most rankings. This year, however, he’s going as the sixteenth QB off the board, just ahead of Ryan Tannehill and Jared Goff. At 129 overall, Baker Mayfield presents an amazing value in a bounce-back campaign.
Baker Mayfield has too much weaponry around him to fail that spectacularly, especially if his offensive line does what we all think (let’s be clear here, hope) it can do to protect him. We saw Baker’s highs already in his rookie year, and we’ve already seen his lows. Two questions surround Baker Mayfield this year. First, do we get 2018 or 2019 Baker? Second, does Kevin Stefanski’s offense allow enough pass attempts to allow Baker to thrive? At QB12, luckily, investing in Mayfield won’t cost an arm and a leg while we find out.
Best Case Scenario:
Odell Beckham, Jr. and Jarvis Landry recover from their injuries, and Austin Hooper is the player that we think he will be in Cleveland. And finally, finally… Cleveland will have a team that’s not a complete dumpster fire. Baker has top-five upside if this happens.
Worst Case Scenario:
Come on, it’s Cleveland and this is 2020. Nothing I can think of will be anywhere near as tragically hilarious as what the worst-case scenario holds.
[Header Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Baker_Mayfield_vs_Bengals_2019_%282%29.jpg under CC SA 2.0]
[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com and airyards.com]
