NFL QB GRADES: WEEK 1

WEEK 2 TNF PREVIEW - BENGALS @ BROWNS (-6)

It’s a high-pressure appearance on Thursday Night Football for Baker Mayfield, who could see himself fully usurped as Ohio’s most exciting young #1 pick, if he hasn’t already been, against Joe Burrow and the Bengals. It’s somewhat baffling what went wrong so quickly for Mayfield last week as the wheels fell off on the very first drive against the Ravens.

After two sharp completions on that opening drive, Mayfield threw two consecutive interceptable balls, the second of which was indeed picked by Marlon Humphrey. He looked rattled the rest of the game.

It’s difficult to even speculate on the why here with a thousand factors currently at play, but I’ll posit that it has to do with staying ‘on schedule.’ Undoubtedly a major focal point of his offseason improvement plan, Baker struggled most in 2019 when he held the ball trying to improvise and/or scramble within the pocket. And he has thrived most during his time at both Oklahoma and in Cleveland when delivering quick passes on schedule.

It appears Baker forced those early throws trying to keep on time and it reveals that he’s still struggling with processing speed when it comes to full field reads in rhythm. That’s concerning, but his undeniable arm talent makes up for quite a bit. He is also a natural at throwing and completing for big gains while rolling to his right; admittedly an overused tool but useful nonetheless and it’s at times kept him afloat.

Interestingly enough, Gardner Minshew’s stunning 19/20 passing performance against the Colts highlighted a command for exactly the area of weakness that is haunting Baker: delivering on schedule. Getting the ball out quickly and to the correct read is the easy solution to the mystery of Minshew’s phenomenal Week 1 and it also further points to Mayfield’s area of weakness. Both players are squat, 6’ 1” QBs hovering around 225 pounds with the same physical limitations. In the wildest of upsets, it’s Minshew who has discovered the path to making that combination of traits work on an NFL field despite far less arm talent. Time will tell if he can sustain it, or Mayfield can begin to find the rhythm himself.

On the flip side of things, Joe Burrow impressed in his debut, but not as much as I frankly thought he would. He looked understandably mentally overwhelmed in the first half coming off a season of unparalleled demonstrated mastery over this part of the game. It could have been an information download and adjustment experience for the whole offense. But AJ Green looked rusty, Joe Mixon was not at his best and most importantly, the line could not block the Chargers front. So it was essentially concerning on all levels.

Despite all this, Burrow kept his focus and played his best ball in the fourth quarter in leading the Bengals to within a chip-shot field goal of sending the game to overtime. Things already seemed to be slowing down for him at this point and his clear-headed composure leading Cincinnati up the field was wonderful, if not at all surprising, to see.

The matchup tonight to begin Week 2 is a terrible one for the Bengals. They have less talent across the board, will blatantly have a difficult time protecting Burrow again and will be facing a furious Browns team that was humiliated in their first game under new head coach Kevin Stefanski. The Browns should win the game, but covering the six point spread may be a tall order if Joe Burrow starts to feel it again in the second half.