Oh, Baker: Mayfield says it 'blows my mind' Giants drafted Daniel Jones
Tuesday morning has given us yet another profile of Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, and yet another example that Mayfield doesn’t really have a filter.
In an ESPN story last month, Mayfield took a swipe at New York Giants fans in defense of his new teammate, Odell Beckham Jr. And in a story with Complex magazine that posted last week, he said the Browns’ preseason hype will lead to backlash.
Now he’s set his sights on the Giants again.
‘Blows my mind’
In a feature with “GQ” written by Clay Skipper, Mayfield and Skipper are in a steakhouse near Cleveland when, Skipper writes, a television near their booth begins playing a “SportsCenter” segment about New York.
“I cannot believe the Giants took Daniel Jones,” Mayfield says. “Blows my mind.”
OK, then.
New York and specifically general manager Dave Gettleman have gotten a fair amount of criticism for selecting Jones at No. 6 overall in the draft. For fans and sports-radio talking-head types to criticize them is one thing; for a current NFL player to do it, on the record, is quite another.
“Some people overthink it,” Mayfield says of selecting a quarterback. “That’s where people go wrong. They forget you’ve gotta win.”
To Mayfield, drafting or signing a quarterback can apparently be boiled down to one thing: “Either you have a history of winning and being that guy for your team or you don’t.”
‘Are you serious?’
Over the past few years, Mayfield has been called arrogant for things he’s said and done.
The “GQ” interview doesn’t exactly throw cold water on that idea.
If his comments on Jones weren’t enough, he also raised eyebrows with teams in the predraft process.
Mayfield, Skipper writes, was confident he’d be drafted high, though he wasn’t certain it would be at No. 1.
So when the Los Angeles Chargers, who were drafting in the middle of the first round last year, wanted to send him a playbook, he politely declined.
“They hated it,” Mayfield said. “They’re like, ‘Are you serious?’ I go, ‘Yeah, you guys have the 17th pick.’”
While some would say that’s arrogant, Mayfield naturally disagrees.
“I'm not going to act like I have it all figured out,” Mayfield says. “I believe in myself. Some people think that's cocky, but if you don't believe you're any good, then I don't think you're gonna have any success. If you go out there thinking you're gonna fail, you're gonna fail. Which is just the truth.”
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