Baker Mayfield Took More Snaps Under Center with Browns Than All of College

Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield has been "under center more in two days of rookie camp practice than in his entire three years at Oklahoma and one year at Texas Tech," according to Tony Grossi of ESPN.com.

The Browns have been giving Mayfield a higher percentage of reps under center than he'll likely see during the season in offensive coordinator Todd Haley's scheme.

"We are going to hammer that until I am good and it feels natural," Mayfield said. "That is the way it should be because I can play out of the 'gun. Everybody here knows that. We are going to hammer that, and we are going to work on what I need to work on so that we can go from there."

Per Grossi, Mayfield was also drilling "getting back in the pocket fast enough to create throwing space for himself. For the second day in a row, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams applied a lot of pressure on Mayfield in team drills."

Long-term expectations are high for Mayfield, the top overall pick in this year's draft who has the tall task of eventually ending Cleveland's endless game of musical chairs at the quarterback position for the past two decades.

He was certainly productive at Oklahoma, throwing for 12,292 yards, 119 touchdowns and just 21 interceptions the past three years while completing 69.8 percent of his passes and winning the 2017 Heisman Trophy. 

That production was one reason the Browns were convinced enough to select him over other quarterback prospects such as USC's Sam Darnold, Wyoming's Josh Allen and UCLA's Josh Rosen, all top-10 picks.

Another reason was his demeanor, as Vice President of Player Personnel Alonzo Highsmith told Peter King of MMQB.com:

"I've never been concerned with the big arm or the size, necessarily. Those things help, obviously. But I was always looking for traits. [Brett] Favre and [Joe] Montana and [Bernie] Kosar and [Aaron] Rodgers and Troy [Aikmen]—they had the kind of presence, like when you were a young kid and your big brother was around, and you always felt a lot more confident when your brother was there with you.

"One night in training camp my last summer, with Kansas City, we had the night off. Montana was going out with the guys and he saw me laying on my bed and he says, 'Let's go, Highsmith. Everybody's going. Let's go.' They all had that smirk, that stare, that attitude. You never saw the deer in the headlights. When I met Baker, I saw that in him. And I told him, 'You could have played with me at Miami. You could have been one of us.'"

For now, the Browns are drilling Mayfield on the little things. The 2018 season will be a developmental one for Mayfield, who may not be asked to start with veteran Tyrod Taylor in the fold.

There's little doubt, however, that Mayfield is the future of the franchise, for better or worse.