Baker Mayfield (born April 14, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL).
It has been a rough start for the Baker-Mayfield era in Charlotte so far.
As an answer to the Panthers’ quarterbacking conundrum, Mayfield has been odious in his first two starts with the team, completing 53.6 percent of his passes for 380 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 79.5. In other words, Mayfield’s play has been average, which is understandably not good enough to win a game in today’s NFL.
Mayfield said on Wednesday that he was not satisfied with his performance. There is only one thing I care about, and that is winning.
I don’t care about my stats, I only care about winning. I haven’t taken care of the ball well enough. That is pretty much the only stat I care about.
There is a need for me to command this group more effectively. In order to do that, I have to lead better, I have to make sure that everybody is on the same page so that we are able to execute at a much higher level.
My biggest disappointment is that it has not yet shown up for me, and that’s the biggest disappointment for me. In that regard, I take full responsibility for the offense that I committed.”
Mayfield has encountered struggles that are familiar to those who watched him play in Cleveland.
The 6-foot-1 quarterback has had nearly a dozen passes batted down at the line of scrimmage in his first two games, threw an ugly interception against the Browns in Week 1, and has struggled to connect with open targets.
He’s fumbled five times (fortunately, the Panthers have recovered all of them) and also taken some unnecessary risks, though they haven’t produced as many turnovers as they did in his final season in Cleveland.
As a matter of fact, Carolina’s offense has been unable to find a consistent rhythm over the past few weeks.
Although there have been some bright spots — Mayfield nearly led the Panthers to a comeback win over Cleveland with an offensive explosion that included a 17-point fourth quarter and a 75-yard touchdown pass to Robbie Anderson — they have not been prevalent enough to inspire confidence in the Panthers.
Rather than getting Christian McCaffrey involved, the Panthers have been unable to get their offense going, and Mayfield has been forced to shoulder most of the offensive load on his own.
To this point, he has not shown he is capable of utilizing such a responsibility to the advantage of their team.
There have been a lot of issues that led Cleveland to get a new quarterback and those issues have carried over to Carolina, where Mayfield has extended his streak of sub-100 passer rating games to eight, making it the longest streak in his career and tied for the second-longest streak among active quarterbacks.
Quite simply, Mayfield is going to need to do better this week, as he will be facing an opponent in New Orleans — a team that hasn’t allowed an opposing starting quarterback to post a 100-plus passer rating in any of the last eight games — that won’t make things easy for him.
However, Mayfield sees the bright side of things, and he believes that there are reasons to be optimistic.
In little stints, we’ve been able to show our potential,” Mayfield said. “We’ve shown flashes of what we’re capable of.”.
But we need to be more consistent in our performance. When we do our job and string a couple of good plays together, we can see the explosive plays that can be produced when we simply do our job.”
As the season approaches, it will become increasingly important for Carolina to establish such consistency. The outcome of the season — and the future of head coach Matt Rhule — could hinge on it.
Baker Mayfield: Panthers’ fourth-quarter rally vs. Browns a sign of team’s ‘potential’
As Baker Mayfield made his Panthers debut, it was accompanied with an air of added importance — and the first half of it was awful.
It is a good thing for Carolina and its new quarterback that the game is only one.
As Mayfield said after the Panthers’ Week 1 loss to their former team, “everybody made this out to be the Super Bowl, but despite what everyone is going to make this out to be, there are 16 more games to play.”
On Sunday, the Giants and Packers will face off at the Meadowlands in the next game in that group of 16. In order to avoid an 0-2 start, the Panthers must play better in the first 30 minutes.
Carolina’s offense struggled in the first two-quarters of their opener against the Browns, gaining most of its 95 first-half yards on the Panthers’ only scoring drive.
It became clear when Browns kicker Cade York’s 58-yard game-winning field goal passed through the uprights that Carolina had dug itself a hole too deep to climb out of.
According to Mayfield, “Everything we did leading up to it was perfect. We just didn’t execute.” In the first half, I laid an egg and fell behind.
Against a team that runs that way, it’s hard to come back. As a result, everyone is very critical of themselves, leaders are taking responsibility for themselves, and the players aren’t losing their heads.
It’s just another day; play the next play, fix the mistakes, and get them back.”
Mayfield and his still-new Carolina teammates are motivated by the Panthers’ performance in the second half as they prepare to face the Giants on Sunday.
All of our guys should look forward to (the fourth-quarter rally), Mayfield said. Even with some poor looks, we were able to execute our plays and do so at a high level.
I said it was two completely different teams in the first half and second half, so everyone does your job. Focus on that, play the next play … and realize that we can be a great team.
Mayfield completed 6 of 8 passes for 134 yards in the second half. A touchdown pass to Robbie Anderson accounted for 75 of those yards, instantly transforming a game that seemed out of reach for Carolina.
Mayfield led an 11-play, 75-yard drive that ended with his own rushing touchdown — and a celebratory football thrown into the Bank of America Stadium wall.
Baker Mayfield Bio.
Baker Reagan Mayfield (born April 14, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL).
Following a stint with Texas Tech, Mayfield played college football at Oklahoma, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior.
He was selected first overall by the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Mayfield set the rookie quarterback record for passing touchdowns, along with ending a 19-game winless streak for the Browns in his debut.
His most successful season was in 2020 when he led the Browns to their first playoff appearance since 2002 and victory since 1994.
However, due to inconsistent play and conflict with Brown’s management, Mayfield was traded to the Panthers in 2022.
Early life and high school career
Mayfield was born on April 14, 1995, in Austin, Texas, to James and Gina Mayfield as the second of two sons.
James, a private equity consultant, encountered financial difficulties during his younger son’s senior year in high school.
These struggles forced the Mayfields to sell their family home and move from rental homes to rental homes.
Mayfield grew up as a fan of Oklahoma, and he attended a number of their games during his childhood.
His father played football for three years for the University of Houston, though James never lettered.
Mayfield was the starting quarterback for the Lake Travis High School Cavaliers football team in Austin.
He led Lake Travis to a 25–2 record in two seasons and won the 2011 4A State Championship.
He finished his high school football career totaling 6,255 passing yards, 67 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.
A 3-star recruit, Mayfield received light recruitment and only earned scholarship offers from Florida Atlantic, New Mexico, North Texas, Rice, Sam Houston State, and Wyoming, but also received preferred walk-on offers from Baylor, Texas Tech, and Washington State.