While I don’t know where I came to the conclusion, I thought Baker Mayfield was less than 6 feet tall and under 190 pounds. With that misconception, I set out to see how he compared to the top quarterbacks in Division One college football. So, without first confirming Mayfield’s physical attributes, I set about garnering such information for the quarterbacks of the AP’s Top 10 teams in this week’s poll. Here are the results.
The average sized quarterback of a Top 10, Division One team is 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 221 pounds.
With this information in hand, I was thinking that Baker Mayfield is considerably smaller than quarterbacks of teams in the hunt for the four playoff spots. So, I decided to look up Baker’s numbers to make sure.
At 6 foot 2 inches tall, Baker is the same height as the quarterbacks for the 3rd and 4th ranked teams and only an inch shorter than the QBs of the 5th and 9th ranked teams. Weighing 214 pounds he is nominally as heavy or heavier than the QBs of the 3rd, 4th, 7th and 9th ranked teams. With respect to the QBs of the four teams most predicted to make the playoffs, Mayfield is 2 inches shorter and 21 pounds lighter than the average of two and nominally the same size as the other two.
I must conclude, therefore, that although Baker is on the small end of the size range of the quarterbacks playing for the Top 10 ranked teams or the four predicted playoff teams, he is not significantly so.
So if size is not clearly the problem (usually because of an inability to see and throw over gargantuan linemen), I’ve gone searching for an alternative explanation for Baker’s apparent need to take-off scrambling so much.
I could think of three possible reasons: (1) he lacks the discipline to stay in the pocket for sufficient time to allow the receivers to run their routes; (2) the offensive line cannot protect him long enough to allow the receivers to run their routes; or (3) the receivers aren’t capable of creating separation from their defenders so that Baker has to scramble to give them time to break off their routes and work their way free. Of course, on any given play, any one of, or any combination of the three, could be the culprit.
The O-line was pretty bad last year and I haven’t seen too much to opine much improvement. If, in fact, the line is the problem, Mayfield’s ability to scramble is a godsend.
The O-line was pretty bad last year and I haven’t seen too much to opine much improvement. If, in fact, the line is the problem, Mayfield’s ability to scramble is a godsend.
So what does all this mean?
If the problem is Baker’s lack of discipline, it really hasn’t seemed to adversely effect him too much through three games. However, his numbers against Tennessee — the only quality opponent OU has faced this year — were significantly worse than his numbers in the other two games. We should get better insight over the next three games (West Virginia, Texas and Kansas State). If his numbers fall off for these three games, we will need to reassess him.
If the problem is the O-line’s inability to protect him, we shouldn’t be too surprised. The O-line was pretty bad last year and I haven’t seen too much to opine much improvement. If, in fact, the line is the problem, Mayfield’s ability to scramble is a godsend.
If the problem is the receivers’ inability to gain separation, again we shouldn’t be surprised. With the exception of Sterling Shepherd, the receiving corps was very anemic last year. Nothing that has happened thus far in 2015 has demonstrated significant improvement, although there are some hopeful signs. And, if in fact the receiving corps is the problem, Mayfield’s ability to scramble is again a godsend.
Bottom line, I don’t think we have enough data to fully evaluate Baker Mayfield at this point.
A CLOSING THOUGHT: I started thinking about this blog when SoonerGuys founder, Mike, suggested I write up my thoughts on Baker Mayfield. As I indicated earlier, I thought it would be easy because I thought he was too small to be successful against championship-contending talent. I learned that this was not the case, at least not to the extent I originally thought. It remains to be seen how his size will compare to the QBs of the final-four teams.
But regardless of Baker’s size, there is another nagging thought in the back of my mind. As I have implied before (see my September 7, 2015 post), I think OU has recruiting issues. In the last five years, OU has only signed three five-star recruits.
By comparison, Ohio State has signed six, Mississippi has signed four, Michigan State has one and TCU has none. It also appears, however. that generally OU has fewer four-star recruits and more two-star recruits than the other top teams over that same period.
And even more disturbing, OU apparently passed on Baker Mayfield in the class of 2013 in favor of Cody Thomas, who has not won the starting job, and relied on 2012 recruit, Trevor Knight.
Thus, a two-time walk-on QB has beaten out two recruited quarterbacks for the starting job at the most important position on the team.
Clearly, the OU coaching staff has done a poor job evaluating and recruiting QB talent over the last five years. Why is that? I don’t know. But, I suspect that the apparent drop off in the Big 12 (-2) and OU’s drop off within the Big 12 (-2) may play a significant role in the problem. Hopefully, the newly hired coaches will turn this around.
— Gary
(Editor’s note: Gary stands at least 6-feet-3 inches tall — in case you wondered).
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