Getty Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield
There isn’t much higher praise you can receive as an NFL quarterback than from Brett Favre. And on Wednesday, Cleveland Browns signal-caller Baker Mayfield just heard the longtime Green Bay Packers legend sound off in brutally honest fashion about his play.
As Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal revealed, Favre spoke about Mayfield while hosting ‘The SiriusXM Blitz,” and offered quite a bit of praise to the No. 1 pick.
“I think he can be great,” Favre said Wednesday on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “To criticize how tall he is, I don’t pay attention to that. I think [New Orleans Saints quarterback] Drew Brees has dispelled any of that talk.”
″[Ron Wolf] goes, ‘That guy is a winner,’” Favre said. “He’s been a walk-on [twice in college]. He transferred. People tried to write him off, but yet he has managed to persevere, and he’s a winner. He’s fun to watch. He’s a playmaker. He’s resilient. He’s all those things. And he hasn’t technically had a win as a starter [in the NFL], but you can just feel it.
Favre obviously had plenty to say about the young quarterback, as he continued on by stating that Mayfield is “going to give you the best chance to win and he’s going to do it to the last whistle.”
Baker Mayfield’s Confidence vs. Cockiness
As Ulrich also revealed, the Pro Football Hall of Famer addressed the confidence Cleveland’s quarterback has consistently shown. And in Favre’s eyes, that confidence is something that’s necessary for winners in the NFL.
“Some may call it cockiness. Some may call it overconfidence. You call it whatever you want. But the winners have that little bit of air about them in how they carry themselves and then their playmaking ability and just how – to me, equally as important – is you can just see a heightened enthusiasm when that player’s in the game.”
Through six quarters of NFL action, Mayfield has shown glimpses of tremendous upside. He’s completed 38-of-64 passes for 496 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. He did take a bit of a step back in his first start in Week 4, which came against the Oakland Raiders. In that game, Mayfield completed just 51.2 percent of his passes for 295 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.
There’s no question Mayfield has tremendous upside, and when he puts it all together, he may very well prove to be the longterm answer at quarterback the Browns have desperately sought.
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