Who’s poised for a better year 3 Baker or Darnold

Down six with two minutes left to play, who would you want leading your team down the field? Both Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold are heading into their 3rd year in the NFL. The two could also be looking to add to their resume and solidify themselves as the franchise quarterback. Although the pair has had their struggles on the field, they have also demonstrated potential for greatness. We've decided to dig deep and tell you who we believe will break out this season and have the best chance to lead their team to a playoff position.

First we will discuss Baker and his journey through his first year in the NFL. Since entering the league in 2018, Baker Mayfield hasn’t exactly "wowed" everyone with his play like he did back with the Sooners. Hue Jackson was his head coach year one, but then left half-way through the season (who could blame him), Baker didn’t put up stellar numbers but no rookie truly does year one. He had 27 touchdowns against 14 interceptions so he really wasn’t all that bad for Cleveland. What really didn’t help baker was an incompetent head coach in Jackson. Thank god he left or the Browns could still be the laughing stock of the NFL.The following year things inevitably get worse under new coach Freddy Kitchens who lead the least disciplined team in the whole league. Imagine having all that talent and still being an absolute dumpster fire. However, during that time, Baker was surrounded with weapons of all kinds including Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. (also cannot forget kicker/RB Kareem Hunt).

I know some of you are wondering, why couldn’t Baker put up better numbers with such a great supporting cast around him? We have to assume it's the open door of head coaches walking in and out of that building every year. So why will Baker make the leap this season with first year coach Kevin Stafanski? We saw what the Vikings offense looked like last year with Diggs and Thielen catching balls from Cousins. What’s to say Stafanski cant do the same with baker? Lets be honest, he has way better weapons like Odell and Landry. Head coach Stafanski also likes to utilize his tight ends very frequently in the end zone. Look who the Browns signed during the off-season and during the draft. That end of the field seems to be taken care of, and just in case that doesn’t work they have a great running back, Nick Chubb. Plan for this years Browns to be more of an air raid offense. Bakers accuracy and deep ball will be needed much more than in past offensive schemes. With that said, Baker needs to rely heavily on HC Stafanski this season. He needs to put his trust into him and buy into the system and culture he is putting in place. That is easier said than done with Covid-19 looming over the 2020 season. With no training camp and preseason, Bakers' back is against the wall. I believe Stafanski realizes this and will try to simplify his offense with less passes over twenty yards than previous years, which could be exactly what Baker needs to finally show his true potential (even with a great WR corp).

Overall, if Baker can feed his wide receivers for slants and shallow crosses than it will open up for a deep ball. Who would like to see Odell making circus like catches down field again? I live for that shit. With all this talent, it could come down to Bakers decision making skills. It has to be hard having all that talent and not sure who to feed to more. He will have to come into this season with more knowledge of defenses and personnel. Making the right calls in tough situations. Hopefully, he always hits the open pass, which is the easy answer. This could be the year that Baker finally shows his true potential we all know he has. It has to be! He has too many weapons, a legitimate and smart offensive head coach, and all the talent in the world. Prepare for Baker to pull a slightly less profound Patrick Mahomes 2018 break out season.

Onto Sam “mono” Darnold. Unlike Baker, Darnold was a week one starter from the jump. Being thrown right into the fire inside the big apple is a huge weight on anyones shoulders and even more pressure when that position is quarterback. To much surprise, Darnold handled the pressure the best he could. Being a rookie, he ended his season with 17 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. Not a page popping stat, but he did also have a record setting performance being the youngest QB to have a QB rating over 110 and with a passer rating of 116.8 (not too shabby). What was his ultimate downfall that season other than a terrible front office? That would be having a defensive minded head coach with a rookie QB.

His back was against the wall the day he stepped foot inside the building. A defensive head coach and a rookie quarterback just never work out their first season together. Despite not having a better offensive mind inside the building, Darnold still showed glimpses of why he was selected in the first round. It would be the next week when we would see another high intersection game. Could be just rookie mistakes or terrible play callings, we believe it's a mixture of both. Unfortunately, Darnold would be sidelined with a foot injury during a week 9 match up with the Dolphins. He would return 3 weeks later. Darnold did not have the best cast of players around him on offense his first season but still finished the year with a 2,865 yards on the season. Do you think Darnold could have put better numbers having a group like Baker did in 2018? Unfortunately, we do not feel that way. There was just no help from the coaching staff year one and that trend would continue into year two.

On January 11th 2019, former Miami Dolphins head coach Adam Gase was hired by the Jets. I mean we all remember his press conference, homie looked like he just ripped a fart and was waiting to see if anyone noticed yet. There was a lot of promise coming from Gase and his offensive mindset to help Sam Darnold over the sophomore slump. The Jets former general manager, Mike Maccagnan, had made some big moves during the offseason in signing pro bowl running back Le’Veon Bell. Which you would think Gase would approve, but many have said Gase did not like the signing of Belll. Regardless Bell at the time was one of the leagues best running backs. A strong run game you would assume would take some of the pressure off Darnold to preform better than the prior season. Unfortunately Bell really wasn’t able to get going like we had seen in the past with the Steelers. What really hindered Darnold during his 2019 campaign was being diagnosed with mono and missing three games for the second season in a row. He would bounce back in his return against the Cowboys and rally his team for a win in big D, but the following week he would be “seeing ghosts” in a blowout lose against the Patriots. All in all, Darnold statically had a better year two ending with 19 touchdowns and 13 interceptions and improving his passer rating to 88.3.

During the offseason we’ve seen the departure of Robbie Anderson one of Darnold's main targets the previous season. The Jets did however draft his hopeful replacement in Denzel Mims. Also helping out the O-line with stud tackle Mekhi Becton. Will this be enough to help Darnold break out this season? I wish I could tell you he’s finally got the right pieces around him to flourish, but I would be lying.

I truly do not believe that Darnold's downfall is in his play, rather it is in Gase. What has he really done in his career? He was a mess in Miami and didn’t really show us too much last season as why he should be a head coach. Think about it. He got his “shot” after two seasons in Denver and one with Manning. He rode the coattails of Manning to a head coaching position. Lets be completely honest. Peyton does not need an offensive coordinator, he is the coordinator. It may hurt Darnold switching to yet another head coach but we believe it's the change he needs. No way he will succeed under Gase, but hey we could be wrong and the Jets make a legit run at the AFC east.