Baker Mayfield is a polairizing figure who has a personality that can rally a team, but still finds himself making mistakes he shouldn’t be making.
This is not about performance on the field. This is about the maturity of Baker Mayfield. Mayfield frequently makes mistakes off the field and continues to make himself look bad. There were two instances from last week’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
The first was the altercation with a fan in the stands.
Why would Baker Mayfield even entertain this person? There is nothing to gain here. If this fan shoots this video, says the exact same thing and Baker does not respond, nobody cares. This video does not go viral. Yet, Mayfield couldn’t control himself, just had to chirp back.
There was another incident which was not caught not camera, but recalled on the Civilized Barking podcast from The Athletic. Baker Mayfield confronted an employee at Paul Brown Stadium celebrating the Bengals victory. Aggressively insisting that the employee should relax and stop celebrating the Bengals win. What is he thinking? Why in the world would he act in this manner?
There is a lot of growing up to do
Baker Mayfield needs to discern what is worth entertaining and what should be ignored. (Here’s a hint, pretty much everything should be ignored). Especially when one of the incidents was not even directed at him. Getting into spats on twitter with Colin Cowherd got old fast. Everyone would be happy if they were not prevalent this offseason. Getting involved with fans heckling him from the stands shows where his mind is at. How focused can he possibly be if he is worried about some nobody yelling at him from the stands?
Here is the deal. Baker Mayfield is 24. He is not as young as some of the other quarterbacks taken in his draft. At this point there is not going to be much maturing when it comes to acting like this. He is who he is.
Baker Mayfield is a polarizing figure. At first his attitude and brash behavior is intoxicating, especially when there has been a streak of losing and terrible quarterback play. Eventually the big and loud act becomes tired and that is where we are at now. There has to be some teammates who are sick of his antics as well. They are around it each and every day.
There is something else to consider. Could the behavior of Baker Mayfield impact potential coaching candidates? Yes, many like his talent, but it is possible that acting like this makes someone think twice about coaching this team. Why sign up to coach a team where the quarterback is becoming more and more unstable? There are plenty of coaches who would go elsewhere just to avoid this.
Talent can only go so far. If someone routinely behaves like a jackass it will take a toll sooner or later. Baker Mayfield needs to grow up, but will he?
