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Fantasy Football Impact: Can the Mayfield Train Get Back on Track?
So much hype and expectations were on Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns as a whole before Week 1 of the regular season. I think we all were anticipating too much to happen too soon with how well this offense would play.
Through three weeks of action, Mayfield has thrown for 805 yards, three touchdowns, and five interceptions against the Titans, Jets, and Rams. At the moment, he’s only averaging 11.4 fantasy points per game which is ranked in the bottom-half overall among active quarterbacks.
While his numbers have been disappointing during these three weeks, it’s still very early in the season and there’s time for him to fix this. Mayfield’s schedule of opposing defenses also gets to be a little more manageable down the stretch of the season as well.
He will get the chance to take on teams like Seattle, Pittsburgh (twice), Miami, and Arizona who are all in the upper-half in terms of passing yards allowed to quarterbacks.
The Browns have the weapons for Mayfield to break out of his current slump that he is in. Guys like Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb, and Kareem Hunt (once his suspension is over) can all contribute towards getting their quarterback on the right track.
He is currently in the top-15 in passing attempts (36.5/gm) and twelfth in deep ball tries (4.5/gm) during his three games this year.
It’s possible that the Browns are still figuring some things out while they are building their chemistry together with one another. If they start to gel as a unit, Mayfield will become an extremely dangerous quarterback and can begin his ascent up the fantasy rankings the next couple of weeks.
It won’t be easy. No big success stories ever truly are, but Mayfield does have the potential to turn this thing around. Between Week’s 3 through 17 in 2018, which was when Mayfield was named Cleveland’s starter, he was QB12.
Furthermore, during that span, Mayfield nearly completed 64.0% of his passes for 3,725 yards, 27 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions.
So we know the ability and talent are there. I believe it’s just a matter of adjusting towards playing together as a cohesive group with his receivers. Once Mayfield can get that under control, the production will begin to flourish and our dreams about his potential may actually come true.
If you are a fantasy manager who has him on your roster, I would advise against dropping him until we get a little bit of a larger sample size of his performance with this 2019 Cleveland offense. Until then, keep him on your bench before you pull the trigger and release him. The last thing you want to do is drop him and let someone else benefit off of a potentially costly mistake.