INDIANAPOLIS — Welcome to draft season. Also known as overreact to arbitrary numbers season, analyze men in underwear season and lazily compare players to other players season.
As humans, we are always looking for a point of reference in situations of unknown. It’s an exercise we do on a daily basis: What thing that I know can I compare to this thing I don’t know to give myself a better understanding of what it might be?
So when people see Baker Mayfield, a player who is not perceived as a sure thing in the National Football League, they instantly want to build a reference point in their head.
- Mobile quarterback
- On the shorter side
- White
- Heisman winner
- Fiery personality
- Off-the-field issue(s)
Boom. Johnny Manziel. Case closed. Beware.
The comparison is lazy on many levels, but it’s worst aspect is that it completely leaves out the fact that Johnny Manziel had real issues. Issues that left him in rehab. Issues that kept him from actually being able to prove if his skill set could work at the NFL level.
One run-in with the law and a couple emotional outbursts on the field does not make a Johnny Manziel, but that’s the conclusion many are willing to jump to.
On Thursday at the NFL Combine, we asked one of Mayfield’s Oklahoma teammates, fullback Dimitri Flowers, why he believed people make that comparison.
“I think it’s because of the media,” Flowers told BSN Denver. “They like to put a lot of negative light on him or escalate certain situations or the little things he does. But I don’t think it’s a fair comparison at all. Baker is a great guy, and he plays with such fire and emotion that I think sometimes people, such as the media, can view that the wrong way.”
“He’s a great person,” Flowers added. “He’s a great guy. He’s very compassionate, and he’s very passionate as well.”
Back at the Senior Bowl in Alabama, Mayfield said the No. 1 thing he wants to prove to NFL teams is the type of person he is, “Everyone wants to portray me as a bad boy, the Johnny Manziel stuff, but no,” he said.
If Flowers’ assessment—one that’s backed by, you know, real experiences—is true, Mayfield will get his way and clear his name from the eggregious comparisons.
