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Baker Mayfield’s Bucs lost to the Ravens on Monday but the quarterback has been on an upswing this season. Photograph: Kim Klement Neitzel/USA Today Sports
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Baker Mayfield
The MVP race is heating up with Jared Goff and Jordan Love entering the frame while Lamar Jackson continues his tear to a third award after throwing five touchdowns came against the Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. Tampa Bay’s quarterback may not have been on Jackson’s stratospheric level on Monday, though Baker Mayfield did put in another dashing outing that featured 370 yards through the air along with two early interceptions and three successive touchdown drives late in the game. Mayfield was at his truculent best as he flexed his credentials as Tampa’s leader, overcoming adversity of his own doing, as well as losing receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to injury during the game.
The 29-year-old was richly rewarded for a career year in 2023 with a $100m contract extension this offseason, and is keeping up his end of the bargain with a follow-up that is even better. Mayfield leads the NFL in passing touchdowns with 18, while he sits third in completion rate at 70.5% (up six percentage points from last season). Efficiency and accuracy issues have improved from his time in Cleveland – he finished 21st in success rate and completions in year one with the Bucs after coming 28th in the accuracy stakes with the Browns in 2020. For Mayfield to be so high up the charts now represents a hugely promising upswing.
Related: The Browns’ sad and seedy Deshaun Watson era nears its predictable endpoint
The road to get here has been rough, being thrown on the scrapheap by the Browns of all teams would trigger impostor syndrome in the most ironclad of minds, but Mayfield has fought on. It will be fascinating to see how this atypical underdog keeps fighting without Evans and Godwin in the fray.
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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-trend-watch-baker-mayfield-113219644.html
Author : The Guardian
Publish date : 2024-10-23 11:32:19
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