STEVE LOVE

Author,  Award-Winning Journalist and Proud Oklahoman

Quarterback Baker Mayfield could teach Spencer Rattler something he needs to learn

Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns

When Baker Mayfield earned his spurs at the University of Oklahoma and became arguably the best quarterback in OU’s distinguished history—option or passing—it seemed as if there might never be another quite like him. Then, there were two.

Sort of.

First Kyler Murray and then Jalen Hurts followed Heisman Trophy-winner Mayfield with their singular seasons of excellence. They made it appear as if Lincoln Riley, the Quarterback Whisperer, could take a turnip with an arm and turn it into a great thrower. Mayfield had been an important piece on Riley’s entrance exam and rapid rise from Sooner offensive coordinator to head coach. Bob Stoops saw what Riley had been able to do with and for Mayfield and recognized Riley as a successor who could keep the dynasty that Stoops had renewed, beginning in 1999, rising to even greater heights.

So Stoops, athletic director Joe Castiglione, and university president David Boren, created a succession plan. They took many by surprise in the summer of 2017 when they installed the 33-year-old Riley as head coach after Stoops retired with hardly a preamble. For his first season, Riley knew he had a not-so-secret weapon—Mayfield.

Not only did the Sooners keep winning but even after the Browns made Mayfield the No. 1 pick of the 2018 National Football League draft, Riley continued to display a remarkable knack for adjusting and tailoring his offense to the unique abilities of the QB of the moment. He could take someone else’s quarterback and make him better than anyone imagined possible. Mayfield was a little-recruited walk-on who had previously played at Texas Tech and became the first of his kind to start as a Big 12 freshman. Murray transferred from Texas A&M, a football program with greater standing than Tech’s. He had even more athletic skills than Mayfield. In addition to a strong arm, he could squirt around the field like a waterbug and was tougher to corral. Hurts also transferred, he after quarterbacking and winning at Alabama, the nation’s most highly regarded program. Riley helped Hurts to become even better after the Tide, with its bottomless barrel of riches, turned to a new flavor of the season, Tua Tagovailoa.

Riley elevated Hurts’ throwing skills while not getting in the way of his quarterback’s penchant to take off running as if he were a combination of fullback and running back. Hurts was a Heisman finalist, which may seem like a fall off only because Murray had given OU two Heisman-Trophy QBs in a row. All three began this season as starting NFL quarterbacks, Hurts in Philadelphia, Murray in Arizona, and, of course, Mayfield in Cleveland, the team he lobbied to pick him because he said that only he could turn it around. In his fourth season, he has shown signs that he might just be able to do that.

Meanwhile, as if were not busy enough uplifting the Browns with his passing, leadership, and steely toughness, Mayfield may want to consider giving his Sooner successor twice-removed—Spencer Rattler, second-year starter—some helpful advice. Rattler began the season regarded as the Heisman frontrunner, which may seem as if it is every Sooner quarterback’s birthright after Mayfield, Murray, and Hurts. It isn’t, and Rattler is different from the Big Three who took the Sooners to Big 12 championships and into shouting distance of a national title. He came to Riley as best-of-class, a 5-star recruit from Arizona who learned behind Hurts and took over for the 2020 season.

Rattler should be watching his predecessors on television, but in case he is not, or not paying close enough attention, Mayfield could reinforce what Riley is no doubt attempting to drill into Rattler’s head: Be patient. Don’t try to prove with that gun of an arm of his that the only reason he does not wear a cape and accompanying outfit with a big “S” on the chest is that it might make it easier for someone to sack him. During a weekend prerecorded interview for a pregame program, Rattler professed to understand that he isn’t in high school anymore, where he could do anything he wanted anytime he desired. He could throw the ball through a closed door. He could be a gunslinger, like Mayfield’s hero, the great Brett Favre, and the clay pigeons would always go down.

As he proved in helping the Browns hold off the plucky Houston Texans 34-21 without his top receivers, Mayfield has learned patience—if not without past and present remediation. His stat line against the Texans proves as much. Even after his left shoulder had been injured when he attempted to make a tackle following an interception more than fault of his rookie receiver, Anthony Schwartz, than his own, Mayfield returned to build a victory with the quality not the quantity of his throws. He finished 19 of 21 (90.5 percent) for 213 less-than-gaudy yards but with a 35-yard touchdown to dynamic rookie Demetric Felton, his own 5-yard run for a TD, and a happy reliance on the running of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt to salt away a home victory and rise to 1-1.

Though his interception might have drifted a little high, the throw was there to make—and there to catch, if Schwartz had not quit on his route. The ball might not have been intercepted had Schwartz put himself in position to fight safety Justin Reid for it and to at least attempt become defender and either prevent Reid from catching the ball or tackling the thief. Mayfield has developed more of a conscience about when and where he throws the football. Contrast this with Oklahoma’s Rattler.

Rattler can be wonderous, which is part of his problem: He knows it. With the Sooners struggling to make its usual long-ball attack work against Nebraska, Rattler continued to do so. On one occasion he went deep to Mario Williams, a dandy but 5-foot-9 receiver, even though he was surrounded by three giant defenders. It was the losing bet or a natural-born gambler, and it is the type of pass that Rattler must learn to pass up. Mayfield could tell him. He also could show him clips of those he did not refrain from, both in college and in the NFL, and the negative results that followed.

If Rattler does not come to terms with the fact that even he has limitations, games not yet lost will be and those Heisman voters who have turned away from Rattler will not take another look. They may not know for whom they want to vote, but they do know for whom they will not. That would be too bad. Rattler has got it—if only he will get it. He is young, smart, and there is still time. Learn from Baker Mayfield. Otherwise, the only invitation he will get to the “Heisman House” will come from Sooners who did learn.

 

NOTE: All of the enumerated Mayfield Memorandums can be found at: https://stevelovewriter.com/blog/