Baker Mayfield was born in Austin, Texas, and attended Lake Travis High School just outside his hometown. He accumulated a 25-2 record as the team’s starting quarterback. As a high school senior, Mayfield passed for 2,467 yards, 22 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. He walked on to Texas Tech and became the first true freshman walk-on to start in a FBS opener in 2013. Mayfield threw for 413 yards and four touchdowns in that debut. He went on to finish the season with 2,315 passing yards and 12 touchdowns, but lost the starting job to Davis Webb.
After the 2013 season, Baker Mayfield transferred to Oklahoma where he was forced to sit out the subsequent season due to NCAA transfer rules. Upon regaining eligibility to play in 2015, Mayfield won the starting quarterback competition and went on to start three years for the sooners, including a 2017 campaign in which he passed for 4,627 yards and 43 touchdowns. Mayfield won the Heisman that season, and is the first ever walk-on player to win that award.
After accumulating some of the best college stats in the PlayerProfiler database, Mayfield declared for the 2018 NFL Draft. He attended the NFL combine where he measured in at 6-1 with a hand size of 9¼ inches. Baker ran an average 4.84 40 time. Ultimately, Mayfield’s elite 97th-percentile 92.6 College QBR and 99th-percentile 11.5 College YPA led the Cleveland Browns to select Mayfield as the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Mayfield began his NFL career behind Tyrod Taylor on the Browns’ depth chart until an injury forced Taylor to the bench. Mayfield went on to play in 14 games and set the NFL rookie record for touchdown passes with 27. He was highly efficient with a +13.0 (No. 5) Production Premium and was top-five in the league among qualified quarterbacks in Deep Ball Attempts and Deep Ball Completion Percentage. Mayfield's rookie season was his best season from a fantasy perspective as he has failed to surpass his 2018 average of 17.9 fantasy points since. He did, however, re-emerge as a competent signal caller in Tampa Bay in the 2023 season after stints with the Panthers and then the Rams. Baker had the first 4,000-yard passing season of his career with the Bucs in 2023, also throwing for a career-high 28 touchdowns, and facilitating a 1,255-yard, 13-touchdown year for Mike Evans.
