A big game by Baker Mayfield on Sunday may show doubters he’s for real

The Cleveland Browns have an opportunity to see if Baker Mayfield is a real franchise quarterback on Sunday against the Washington Football Team.

So far Baker Mayfield has had a tale of two games. There was the Baltimore game, which saw Baker Mayfield get busted up some. Then there was the Cincinnati game, which saw Mayfield look like a young Brett Favre. Mayfield was rolling out, and whipping passes downfield with tremendous zip and velocity. A bit more gun-slinger than game manager.

Sure he had a pick against the Bengals, but that was on a play that saw Mayfield scrambling and hitting a sick juke move on a Bengals defender right before throwing the interception. You don’t want your quarterback to ever throw picks, but if you have to, that’s when you want him to do so, when he’s trying to evade defenders and make a play downfield. The Browns looked good on offense in the win and the team really felt like it had consistency and a rhythm that wasn’t there in Week 1.

Now Mayfield has to lead his team to a win against the Washington Football Team and if we’re being honest, statistically, he’s not too far off from Washington’s Dwayne Haskins; and Haskins has been awful.

Mayfield has 408 yards passing to his name, while Haskins has 401. They’re both barely averaging 200 yards per game for the year and both average around six yards per reception. Mayfield has three touchdowns, while Haskins has two. Mayfield, however, has two picks to Haskins zero. Sure, most of those stats are pretty dismissive due to the styles of offense and the overall talent of those around them; yet, the one stat that should worry Browns fans. That is Mayfield’s and Haskins’ completion percentage. Mayfield has completed 59.7% of his passes, while Haskins 56.3%.

Considering there are ten players in the NFL right now, two of which were taken in the same draft as Mayfield (Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen) completing 70% of their passes, being under 60% is brutally bad in this day and age.

It should be noted that Mayfield nearly completed 70% against the Bengals and that’s impressive. If Mayfield can put up those numbers against this Washington defense, then a lot of the fears and doubts surrounding Mayfield will begin to alleviate. After all, Washington’s defense is almost on par, if not as good as the Ravens.

Washington’s team is really good defensively and a good game against a good defense will help fans sleep better on Sunday night knowing that Mayfield can step up against some of the tougher defenses in the league.