NFL trend watch: Baker Mayfield swashbuckles as Mayo Pats stumble

Rising trend

Mayfield Baker

The MVP race heats up with Jared Goff and Jordan Love entering the frame while Lamar Jackson continues to take home a third award after throw five touchdowns against the Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. Tampa Bay’s quarterback may not have been at Jackson’s stratospheric level on Monday, although Baker Mayfield put together another dashing outing that included 370 yards through the air as well as two early interceptions and three successive touchdowns late in the game. match. Mayfield was at his best as he displayed his credentials as Tampa’s leader, overcoming adversity on his own, as well as losing receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to an injury during the match.

The 29-year-old was richly rewarded for a career year in 2023 with a $100 million contract extension this offseason, and is holding up his end of the bargain with an even better follow-up. Mayfield leads the NFL in passing touchdowns with 18, while he ranks third in completion rate at 70.5 percent (up six percentage points from last season). Efficiency and accuracy issues have improved since his time in Cleveland – he finished 21st^st in success rate and completions in first year with the Bucs after 28 years^th in the accuracy stakes with the Browns in 2020. For Mayfield, being this high in the rankings now represents an extremely promising recovery.

Related: The Browns’ sad, seedy Deshaun Watson era nears its predictable end point

The road to getting here was tough, being thrown on the scrapheap by the Browns of all teams would trigger imposter syndrome in the toughest of minds, but Mayfield kept fighting. It will be fascinating to see how this atypical underdog continues to fight without Evans and Godwin in the fray.

Starting defenders

It’s easy to forget about defensive talent starting out in the NFL, with so much expectation placed on quarterbacks and receivers drafted in the first round.

Seattle took Byron Murphy II with the 16^th overall pick this year, and he quietly exceeded expectations – when he was on the court. With a healthy defensive tackle, they went 4-0 while losing the three games Murphy missed with a hamstring injury. It was in Seattle’s running stops where he had the greatest effect: they allowed 126 yards per game – which helped hold the opposition to just 14.3 points per game – with him and 172 yards/34.7 points per game without. He played a supporting role, making a few flashy plays himself while distracting his teammates so they could get to work. Seattle defensive end Dre’Mont Jones was free to torment Kirk Cousins ​​with four quarterback hits, a sack and a pass deflection on Sunday, while Atlanta was stuck in the mud fighting Murphy .

At Seattle’s NFC West rivals, this year’s 19^th Overall pick Jared Verse is making a name for himself with the Rams. The edge rusher generates pressure with a 27% success rate, fourth highest in the NFL. The Raiders certainly felt Verse’s presence as two of his slants against the quarterback created vital turnovers. The problem is that he only has one rampage so far. If Los Angeles could give some guidance on their missile, they could have an elite point guard.

Downward trend

New York Giants

“The Giants thing, I don’t really understand. (Barkley) was their best player,” Bill Belichick said on the Pat McAfee show. “For a few million dollars more, they could have kept him. Instead they had a guard or someone, I don’t know. The offensive line doesn’t look very good. The former Giants defensive coordinator didn’t hold back in assessing the poor decision-making that led to a beating by former hero Saquon Barkley and the Eagles en route to a 2-5 start.

It was inevitable that Barkley would remind the Giants of his value, as Belichick pointed out that the worst problem for the team is the way quarterback Daniel Jones has been exposed behind a poor offensive line broken by the loss of left tackle Andrew Thomas for the season.

Thomas’ replacement, Joshua Ezeudu, a guard, allowed two sacks and three pressures while former seventh overall pick and, more importantly, tackle Evan Neal watched the horror show unfold from the line. touch. It’s more than likely Neal will face the Pittsburgh Steelers to see how effective he can be, but the omens aren’t good for whoever plays quarterback if a first-rounder isn’t considered. as being ready to intervene immediately when his rock was injured. .

Maybe Neal’s stock is still down after allowing Jones to be sacked 11 times in a single game last season. That would certainly help explain why the G-men are gunning for veteran free agent DJ Humphries in an effort to tighten things up.

Jerod Mayo

The New England head coach was not expected to instantly turn the team around in his first season with the Patriots, not with a team that secured one of the top three draft picks in This year. But the signs are grim that everything is likely to improve, even though rookie quarterback Drake Maye has played quite well in his two starts. The Patriots have lost six in a row with an offense that produces 14.1 points per game and a defense that allowed the 2-5 Jaguars to score 22 points in a single quarter.

Worse, Mayo called his team soft after the beating in London while preaching throughout his career that his style is “demanding without demeaning”. He’s right that the team has fizzled in games — over the last five outings, New England has given up 167.4 yards per game on the ground — although a better option for Mayo surely would have been to adjust his coaching practices in private. His players can agree that they haven’t been good enough. They might also be slightly confused and bored heading into a winnable game against the New York Jets. The performance against their rivals may say a lot about how Mayo players feel about their head coach.