When the NFC playoffs commence next week, the matchup of Jordan Love and Brock Purdy -- who've just completed their first full seasons as starters -- will probably get the most attention. But the second-chance matchup of Baker Mayfield and Jared Goff interests me most.
Both were viewed as top talents coming out of college, selected at No. 1 overall. In contrast, Purdy, famously, was Mr. Irrelevant, while few believed Green Bay should have selected Love in the first round. Goff did get the Rams to a Super Bowl, but he was seldom given the most credit for those teams (and Sean McVay dumped him and his huge contract a couple of years later). Mayfield washed out of Cleveland and then Carolina (ouch), before also putting in a late-season cameo stint with the Rams. He attracted minimal interest as a free agent last offseason.
Here we are, and Mayfield, in Year 6, just put up his best season. Both in NFL terms, and in fantasy, where he was a top-12 quarterback. Goff just completed his 8th season, and it was his 2nd-best for touchdowns and 3rd-best for passing yards. He was a top-6 fantasy quarterback, tying with his best season with the Rams in that regard. That was 2018, when they advanced to the Super Bowl. Hmm.
In any case, table shows each veteran quarterback's career, sorted for each by fantasy rank (4-point TD passes, 1 point for every 20 passing yards). Most recent season is in bold.
| MAYFIELD AND GOFF, YEAR BY YEAR | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Yr | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Rk |
| 2023 | Baker Mayfield, T.B. | 6 | 17 | 364 | 566 | 4044 | 28 | 10 | 12 |
| 2019 | Baker Mayfield, Cle. | 2 | 16 | 317 | 534 | 3827 | 22 | 21 | 16 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield, Cle. | 1 | 14 | 310 | 486 | 3725 | 27 | 14 | 17 |
| 2020 | Baker Mayfield, Cle. | 3 | 16 | 305 | 486 | 3563 | 26 | 8 | 18 |
| 2021 | Baker Mayfield, Cle. | 4 | 14 | 253 | 418 | 3010 | 17 | 13 | 25 |
| 2022 | Baker Mayfield, Car.-LAR | 5 | 12 | 201 | 335 | 2163 | 10 | 8 | 29 |
| 2023 | Jared Goff, Det. | 8 | 17 | 407 | 605 | 4575 | 30 | 12 | 6 |
| 2018 | Jared Goff, LAR | 3 | 16 | 364 | 561 | 4688 | 32 | 12 | 6 |
| 2022 | Jared Goff, Det. | 7 | 17 | 382 | 587 | 4438 | 29 | 7 | 9 |
| 2019 | Jared Goff, LAR | 4 | 16 | 394 | 626 | 4638 | 22 | 16 | 11 |
| 2017 | Jared Goff, LAR | 2 | 15 | 296 | 477 | 3804 | 28 | 7 | 13 |
| 2020 | Jared Goff, LAR | 5 | 15 | 370 | 552 | 3952 | 20 | 13 | 16 |
| 2021 | Jared Goff, Det. | 6 | 14 | 332 | 494 | 3245 | 19 | 8 | 23 |
| 2016 | Jared Goff, LAR | 1 | 7 | 112 | 205 | 1089 | 5 | 7 | 37 |
Hard to say if Mayfield will keep things going, but he sure looked better last night, and in a few other games this season (against defenses not as godawful as Philadelphia's), than he ever did in Cleveland. (There were moments as a rookie, I think, but they kind of faded in the ensuing years.) As for Goff, he's two wins from taking a second team to a Super Bowl, which not a lot of quarterbacks have done.
Maybe the message is that No. 1 overall picks are selected that high for a reason. Alex Smith comes to mind as a guy who had a rough first half of his career, but rose up with some success after finding his way to Kansas City and Andy Reid.
But the broader message is we should be careful not to give up on guys too soon. Carolina, perhaps, should have taken a longer look at Mayfield last year. They'd have saved themselves a whole of draft picks and a Pro Bowl wideout if they had.
--Andy Richardson