NFL GM has a brutal nickname for Baker Mayfield
No one in college football was more polarizing last season than Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Some fans loved him for his competitive fire and on-field heroics, while others hated the Heisman winner for his cocky attitude and juvenile antics.
With the draft two weeks away, NFL general managers are divided on Mayfield too.
Front offices are weighing his football achievements and abilities against questions about whether his success was merely the product of the Sooners’ offensive scheme and whether his immaturity and small stature — he’s just under 6 feet 1 — will prevent him from becoming a top NFL starter.
Some NFL scouts believe his upside is somewhere between Drew Brees and Russell Wilson, who overcame questions about their height (they are 6 feet and 5 feet 11, respectively) to become superstars.
Others see him as the second coming of Johnny Manziel, a 6-foot quarterback whose reckless behavior sank his career after just two seasons.
One GM has come up with a nickname for Mayfield that reflects the latter group’s concerns.
During a segment on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Wednesday, NFL reporter Adam Schefter said an anonymous general manager referred to the Oklahoma quarterback as “that 6-foot jerk.”
Another NFL GM, however, told him Mayfield is the best QB in the draft.
“I was on the phone with one GM, who tells me that in his mind, Baker Mayfield is the best quarterback in this draft — better than Sam Darnold, better than Josh Allen, better than Josh Rosen, better than any of those quarterbacks,” Schefter said. “He’s the No. 1 quarterback.
“But an hour later, a phone call with another GM, who says, ‘Baker Mayfield, that 6-foot jerk?’ And that’s putting it mildly in the exact language that he used.
“It just shows you how divergent opinions can be from one person to the next over the span of one hour. I guarantee that if you went team to team, there will be teams that love Baker Mayfield and teams that have no use for Baker Mayfield. The truth of the matter, it doesn’t really matter. One of them is going to take him and one of them is going to take him very high.”
Schefter said both of those GMs have an interest in drafting a quarterback in the first round.
“That’s the situation,” he said. “It was very colorful. The opinion was very strong. Both opinions from GMs an hour apart could not have been more different. It was hard to reconcile that two men, two respected GMs could view the same guy in such a different way.”
Among the teams expected to consider a quarterback in the first round are the Browns, the Jets, the Giants, the Dolphins and the Cardinals.
We’ll find out which team will roll the dice on Mayfield on April 26 when the draft begins at AT&T Stadium.
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