The Comeback Kid
Baker Mayfield headbutts teammate after leading 98-yard game-winning drive on third day in LA, is so insanely back
On Tuesday, Baker Mayfield was sitting on the waiver wire watching as 31 of 32 NFL teams passed him by. The only franchise interested in the former number-one-overall pick’s services were the 3-8 Los Angeles Rams who, at the bottom of the NFC West and down to their third-string quarterback, were just as desperate as Mayfield. Baker booked his flight before the waiver claim even went through, and by day’s end he was in La La Land.
The only problem? The Ram’s first game was on Thursday.
According to reports, Mayfield got all of 20 reps with the Rams offense before TNF’s extremely TNF tilt with the Las Vegas Raiders. He was essentially flying blind out there, and for the first 55 minutes, it looked like it, as the Rams mustered just three measly points. But trailing 16-3 with less than four minutes remaining, Mayfield led the Rams to their first touchdown of the Baker era. The Raiders then promptly Raidered, going three-and-out. The Rams got the ball back on their own two-yard-line, needing to go 98 yards in under two minutes to win it. What happened next is the stuff they make 30 For 30s about.
No. Freaking. Way. The drive didn’t just save the game for the Rams, it may have saved Mayfield’s career after being spit out the bottom of the two of the league’s worst franchises in the span of a year. You could see that Mayfield sensed the stakes as well, going absolutely mental after the final whistle, headbutting teammates with no helmet on and losing his mind in the locker room when head coach Sean McVay presented him with the game ball.
Even if you’ve been a Baker Hater in the past (guilty as charged), you genuinely love to see it. Unfortunately, while Baker’s NFL career may have been saved on Thursday night, it came at the expense of Derek Carr’s, who was outplayed by a guy calling schoolyard plays in the huddle. Could we be writing a similar comeback story about Carr this time next year? This is the NFL. You certainly wouldn’t bet against it.