Baker: No chance I’ll play 2nd fiddle
Heisman Trophy-winning QB Baker Mayfield has no intention of being a backup to Eli Manning should the Giants take him in next month’s draft.
“First things first, whatever team I go to, I’m not going to settle for a backup job. I’ve never been like that and I never will, I’m going to push that person in front of me. What it comes down to is the best man’s going to win, I know that, but everybody has a role on the team and if you’re not pushing those guys around you to be better, you’re not doing it right.’’
In contrast, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, who may very well be the first QB selected, was not nearly as brash, saying he could accept a backup role.
“Whatever (the coach) asks me to do, I’m going to do that to the best of my ability. If he asks me to be a backup, I’m going to be the country’s best backup quarterback,” said Rosen. “I’m gonna support my starter through everything. It might be a rough relationship at the beginning because they see the dynamic, but I’m gonna do absolutely everything I can to help the team win. If they ask me to compete for the starting job, I’m gonna compete my butt off. Whatever the coach asks me to do, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”
Mayfield, 22, said he’d “love” for the Cleveland Browns to pick him in the draft next month. The kid has no fear of being the umpteenth QB the Browns tab to be the downtrodden franchise’s savior du jour.
“I’d love that,” Mayfield said. “First things first, they’d get a winner. If anybody’s gonna turn that franchise around, it’d be me. I’d be able to put it in the right direction. They’re close. They’re very close. They have the right pieces. I think they just need one guy at quarterback to make that difference.”
Mayfield is an entertaining guy on and off the field. A walk-on who turned into a Heisman winner, Mayfield has plenty of heart and ability, too, and he’s been saying for a while that he would jump at the chance to turn the Browns around. He also seems to have a higher opinion of the Browns roster than the team’s GM.
The Browns are in the middle of a 4-28 stretch and finished the 2017 season winless. Even Cleveland’s new GM John Dorsey doesn’t think the Browns have any “real players.” Still, Mayfield thinks he can be the missing link between the Browns and NFL respectability.
The Browns have had 16 different starting quarterbacks since 2012, a list that includes the likes of Robert Griffin III, Brian Hoyer, Brandon Weeden, and of course, Johnny Manziel, a player Mayfield can’t seem to shake being compared to. They were both exceptional college players, won Heisman Trophies, and managed to do all that without being very tall.
“People forget that he’s a talented football player,” Mayfield said. “When it comes to that comparison, it’s not my favorite at all. We’re two completely different people. He’s said it, I’ve said it.”
Manziel, who flamed out after well-documented off-field issues, stands 6 feet tall. Mayfield is about 6-foot-1.
“Height doesn’t matter,” Mayfield said. “If you have something to say about that, I have three years of tape you can watch.”