QBs reach for the top
Deshaun Watson seemingly has been destined for greatness, but far from it for Baker Mayfield
When Baker Mayfield was a senior at Lake Travis High School, his coach Hank Carter made a call to Chad Morris.
Morris — currently the head coach at Arkansas — coached quarterbacks at Clemson.
Carter told Morris he had a quarterback worth looking at.
Sure, Mayfield was smaller than other recruits. He also wasn’t as fast. He didn’t exactly pass the eyeball test.
But Carter knew he could go on to do great things.
Morris listened, but he already was recruiting a young, talented quarterback and didn’t really have a place for Mayfield. That player was Deshaun Watson.
It all worked out in the end. Watson went on to be a star for the Tigers. He led them to a national title in 2016. In 2017, he was drafted 12th overall by the Texans and has become one of the NFL’s most exciting quarterbacks.
And Mayfield went on to walk on at Texas Tech and then at Oklahoma, where he won a Heisman Trophy. He was the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft and before long was starting for Cleveland.
Mayfield and Watson have had two different paths. And they’ve met along the way.
Now they’ll see each other again Sunday when the Texans host the Browns. The game has a lot to offer.
Mayfield and Watson are two of the youngest starting quarterbacks in the league. They also are two of the most exciting. Sunday’s game is a must-watch thanks to what the two are bringing to the table.
“It’s a great matchup,” Carter said. “I think the two of them represent the league well. It will be fun to watch.”
Mayfield’s ascension with the Browns has been impressive.
He made his regular-season debut in Week 3 when he came in for injured Tyrod Taylor against the New Yok Jets. The winless Browns were down 14-0 when Mayfield came in. He went 17-of-23 for 201 yards and the Browns came back to win 21-17, snapping a 19-game losing streak.
From then on, Mayfield has been the starter and has completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 2,242 yards, 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
“When I watch him on tape, I don’t really see a rookie,” Texans safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “I see a guy that’s progressively going through his reads. A guy who takes shots down the field. Everyone talks about his legs, but I don’t think he uses his legs to run. He uses them to throw the ball downfield.”
That has been Mayfield’s strength throughout his career.
“He could always throw the football,” Carter said.
Another strength for Mayfield is his charisma. He uses his strengths to make up for what he lacks.
“He was always one of the smallest guys on the team,” Carter said. “He wasn’t particularly fast. I wish I could say I knew right away how good he would be, but it took time.
“He was always a field general, though, always a leader. He had a great rapport with everyone, loved being in the limelight. He had all those intangible qualities.”
And Mayfield worked on the rest.
Watson, on the other hand, was destined for greatness early on. When he graduated from Gainesville High School in Georgia in 2014, he was rated the No. 1 quarterback recruit in 2014 by ESPN.
He was plagued with injuries his freshman year at Clemson, but he was on the map by his sophomore season. He and the Tigers played in the next two national championship games — and won the title his junior year.
When he was drafted, the Texans and their fans knew they had the kind of player to build around.
And while a knee injury held him back his rookie year, this season he has been a force. He has completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 2,807 yards, 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Mayfield and Watson have big futures in the NFL.
They’ve both made huge impacts in programs that needed them. They’ve established themselves as leaders early in their careers. They are two young QBs with a lot in front of them.
They’ve run into each other in the 2015-16 College Football Playoff, which Clemson won. The next season they were Heisman finalists the following year.
Sunday’s meeting between the two might be the first of many at this level. And it’s a matchup that will will be fun to watch for a long time.
They’ve taken different paths but ended up as starters in the NFL.
Each is making his team better, which makes Sunday’s game more interesting.