The Seahawks are at a crossroads heading towards the 2022 season. They can either stick with the combination of Drew Lock and Geno Smith at quarterback and take their chances on the 2023 class of QB prospects, or they can try to add a veteran with upside.
At this late hour there are only two names that are supposedly on the trade block: Jimmy Garoppolo of the 49ers and Baker Mayfield of the Browns. While Garoppolo would fit this offense his contract is a no-go and San Francisco won’t be dealing him to a division rival anyway. That probably makes Mayfield Seattle’s best chance to get an upgrade at QB before the season begins.
While Mayfield struggled a great deal last season there’s reason to believe he will bounce back with a change of scenery. For one thing, injuries played a huge role in his issues and a fully-healthy Mayfield would be better than what we saw last year by default.
There’s also some math to back that up. According to Pro Football Focus, Mayfield is among the quarterbacks who are most likely to improve in 2022 based on EPA per pure dropback. They have Mayfield ranked second behind Zach Wilson of the Jets.
“At the time of writing, Mayfield is still on the Browns’ roster, and these projections bake in a team’s wide receiver talent. Therefore, if the former Heisman winner were to move to a team with a better receiving corps, his projection would also improve. Although the model does not consider that Mayfield is coming back from injury, it does not project him to repeat his 2021 injured results and sees him becoming at least average a shade less than 50% of the time.”
Mayfield’s game has its flaws, but he does have one of the best deep balls in the league. That would help take advantage of Seattle’s talents at wide receiver. Mayfield also excelled during the 2020 season with the use of pre-snap motion and 11 personnel – both likely to be staples of Shane Waldron’s offense going forward.
Our staff seems to be split on the idea of adding Mayfield. Some of us feel it wouldn’t be worth it in the long run, while others believe he’s their last-best chance to field a playoff team this year.
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