The Most Underrated NFL Football Player
Photo from CBSSport.com
“The Bucs are keeping their starter after his impressive 2023 season.”
Recently, the NFL released its list of the Top 100 Players for 2024. I’ve had the time to review it and digest the names listed… and not listed. Something caught my eye that was a bit of a surprise. I wanted to do a sanity check, so I took a look at a few other Top 100 lists released by several media sources:
In all cases, the same guy was missing from the line-up. That missing name is Baker Mayfield. Four lists with not a single mention. By my estimation, this makes him the most underrated NFL football player going into the 2024 season. Now, I’m not claiming him as a Top 10 quarterback, but what he is… is a Quarterback who took his team to the playoffs last year, while winning the first round of those playoffs. This ties him for overall postseason victories with Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, Kirk Cousins, and Jalen Hurts. On top of that, he has more playoff wins than several highly regarded Quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, Kyler Murray, and Deshaun Watson. Just about all of those names can be found on those Top 100 lists. How can this happen? How could Baker be so underrated as to not show up anywhere?
From Disrespected
To put it plainly, Baker Mayfield has become the ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ of the NFL. The disrespect started after the 2021 season when the Cleveland Browns traded him away for a 2024 5th-round pick. A “5th ROUND PICK!!!” We’re talking about a guy who was the 1st overall pick just a few seasons earlier, who seemingly did what was expected by leading the Browns to the playoffs in 2020, while winning in the first round. Unfortunately, the team took a step back in 2021, which prompted the trade to Carolina.
He was subsequently released by the Panthers in the middle of the 2022 season and chaos ensued. He did a stretch with the Los Angeles Rams to close out the season, then fell into free agency. Going into 2023 he was picked up by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In so doing, he was taking the vacated spot left by Tom Brady after he retired… again. Stepping into those shoes is a tall order so understandably Baker may have been rated pretty low at that time.
But things have changed.
Photo from USA Today Sports
To The Most Underrated
In one season, Baker Mayfield turned things around. He not only succeeded in his role as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Quarterback, but he also put together his best individual performance to date. Comparing his numbers from last season to the rest of his career, you can see that he hit a personal best for:
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- Pass Attempts
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- Pass Completions
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- Completion Percentage
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- Total Passing Yards
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- Total Passing Touchdowns
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- Total Passing 1st Downs
And achieved his:
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- 2nd best Passer Rating
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- 1st trip to the Pro Bowl
Baker Mayfield’s career statistics – All data taken from Pro-Football-Reference.com
On top of this, he didn’t just outdo himself last year. He was consistently in the top 10 to 15 for several key Quarterback statistics, including top 10 for Passing Completions, Yards, and Touchdowns.
This points to a player who is easily in the upper half of the Quarterback rankings from last year. Despite the numbers, 16 other Quarterbacks are listed ahead of him in the NFL Top 100. Five of them didn’t even make the postseason because of poor performance or injuries. Furthermore, Baker accomplished all this with the least “Help” among all the Quarterbacks listed in the Top 100. He earned those numbers the hard way.
Final Takeaway
What this tells me is that he is viewed as minimally the 17th best Quarterback in the league by the NFL Network voters. It just isn’t so. This is the root of my claim that he’s so underrated. I understand that consideration to past performance and reputation is given in these votes. Elite players like Aaron Rodgers and Joe Burrow get the benefit of the doubt and appear on the lists even though they sat out with injuries most of the year. But what achievements do Trevor Lawrence, Kirk Cousins or Justin Herbert have to give them credit over Mayfield?
I suppose the rocky road Baker has travel the last couple of seasons may be the reason he was snubbed and is so underrated going into this year. As such, he’ll simply have to perform again. He has the same weapons, an improved offensive line to work with, and he seems to have found a home. At this point, I expect him to lead Tampa Bay to repeat as the NFC South Divisional Champs. If he can pull that off, will it make a difference? Will he get the respect he deserves? This story is something to look forward to in 2024… says me.