Baker Mayfield has had a strange week.
On Sunday morning, he was a backup quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.
On Monday morning, he was released by Carolina, and many people were saying that his career would be over.
After two days of prediction and speculation, most of which surrounded the San Francisco 49ers, it was announced that Baker would join the Los Angeles Rams, filling in for the injured Matthew Stafford.
On Thursday, he played his first game for the Rams.
He led his new team to a 17-16 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Come Friday morning, Baker is in the headlines again, but this time it is for the right reasons.
His quick turnaround is getting praise from the NFL community, most notably, the Arizona Cardinals’ J.J. Watt.
Joining the team on Tuesday and winning a game on Thursday at the quarterback position is absolutely incredible.
There are some positions that you can plug into a new team/system somewhat easily. QB has to be by far the hardest.
Damn impressive Baker.
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) December 9, 2022
The Hardest Position
In his praising tweet, Watt describes the journey that Baker has taken in the past two days as “absolutely incredible.”
He then says that the quarterback position is the hardest position for a new player to learn.
Watt raises a good point here.
The quarterback position is one of the hardest positions to play.
A good quarterback needs to be knowledgeable of a team’s whole playbook and system.
Every coach may have a different system, which is dependent on the ability of the quarterback and the offensive talent available on the team.
The system that the Panthers used is completely different to the system that Rams head coach Sean McVay uses.
For Mayfield to come into the team on Tuesday, with a primetime game on Thursday, and confidently learn and execute the system to enable the Rams to win against the Raiders seems impossible.
But this is football, anything is possible.
NEXT: Sean McVay Gives Emotional Postgame Speech After Win
Kathie Russo says
CONGRATULATIONS to Baker Mayfield. He got a terrible break with the Browns, I don’t think the interim coach for the panthers felt good about Mayfield. Fast forward to the Rams and Mayfield and he wins his first game with them. I think talent and coaching make a winner. I am from Cleveland and I will root for Mayfield no matter where he is playing. He is a great quarterback and I hope he fairs well with the rams.🏈🏉🏈🏉🤩