After watching what Baker Mayfield did to the Raiders after only being with the Rams for 48 hours, a question occurred to me: In redraft, who would you rather have for the rest of the season, Mayfield or Deshaun Watson?
It’s easy to say Watson in dynasty, but in redraft where you only get the QB for this year, and there aren’t many games left, Watson looked rusty in his only game played, whereas Mayfield looked almost juiced, which is weird considering how banged up the Rams were going into this game, with backups in far too many positions. Watson was playing with a mostly healthy, borderline playoff team.
Now I won’t exclude the possibility this Rams game was more about the Raiders pissing away opportunities, since we’ve seen that too many times this year. The Raiders under Josh McDaniels are the first NFL team to lose 4 games in one season when leading by 13 or more points. Certainly, the Raiders presented the opportunity gift-wrapped to Baker Mayfield. But to drive your team 98 yards for a game-winning td with only a few seconds on the clock, with what had to be only a base knowledge of the playbook? Even against the Houston Texans, that would be a tough ask.
If you look at Mayfield’s history, is it possible we underestimated him? Consider the Browns: Kevin Stafanski has always used a run-first offense, which isn’t exactly QB-friendly. Mayfield has put up somewhat decent numbers in that system. Then he leaves for the Panthers, a team about to fire its head coach, which tells you things weren’t a lot better. So Mayfield faceplants there. Suddenly, he gets waived and picked up by a team that won last year’s Super Bowl, mainly by throwing a lot, and suddenly, Mayfield looks like a semi-stud? Granted, it’s only one game, but my Spider sense is tingling on this one.
If anything, that same history is cause for concern for Deshaun Watson. If Mayfield makes it in LA where he couldn’t make it in Cleveland, what does that say about Watson’s chances in Cleveland?
I will leave this question on the floor for debate.