Baker Mayfield

2022 Fantasy Upside
Baker Mayfield was finally granted his trade request after the Browns cast him aside in favor of Deshaun Watson. He joins a Panthers’ offense with more talent than he had in Cleveland, including the multi-dimensional Christian McCaffrey in the backfield. There may be an adjustment period for Mayfield arriving to the team late in the offseason, but he should be a massive upgrade at the position over what Carolina trotted out a year ago. He led the Browns to an 11-5 record behind a 26/8 TD/Int ratio just two years ago before playing through a dislocated non-throwing shoulder throughout 2021.

2022 Fantasy Downside
While I expect Mayfield to win the starting job over Sam Darnold, the team has said it’ll be an open competition, so there is risk he won’t start Week 1. More concerning is his lack of fantasy production. While he did have a magical 2020 season as an NFL quarterback, as a fantasy quarterback he was just QB17 that year. Mayfield has yet to throw for 4,000 yards in a season and hasn’t eclipsed 30 touchdowns. He doesn’t pad a whole lot of rushing yards onto his stats either, averaging 9.5 yards on 2.6 rushing attempts per game since entering the league – though he did score three rushing touchdowns in 2019.

2022 Bottom Line
Mayfield is virtually undraftable in 1QB leagues, but he presents some streaming upside in good matchups as bye week or injury-filler. Consider him a low-end QB2 option heading into the season, and he’ll likely continue to be a better real-life quarterback than fantasy one.