There has never been a better time to bet on Baker Mayfield. It seems like the former Oklahoma Sooner has found a home in Tampa Bay, where he just delivered the best season of his career. Although Mayfield is turning 30, he might be about to play his best football. That being said, it’s rare to mention Mayfield amongst the elite quarterbacks in the league (Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, etc.). That begs the question: where do fantasy players actually draft him?
Baker Mayfield 2024 Stats and Fantasy Production
A lot of people like to say that Mayfield had his best career season last year, but it’s important to see how that exactly happened. Mayfield had never thrown for more than 30 touchdowns in a season before; last year, he threw 41. He also never had a QBR over 100; last year, he had 106 for the season. Basically, Mayfield showed massive improvement in every quarterback category, and that’s why so many football fans are singing his praises.
His fantasy stats from 2024 make him look like his last name was Brady or Manning. First of all, he had a very low floor; there were only two weeks when Mayfield had less than 10 points. Those games were also against top 10 defenses (Denver and San Francisco). Secondly, he had a huge ceiling; Mayfield had 34.1 points against Carolina in week 17, as well as a couple of games in the 27-29 point range. This is why he was able to finish QB 5 on the year for fantasy.
Baker Mayfield 2025 Fantasy Outlook
Fantasy Pros has Baker Mayfield ranked at number seven in the league, and that’s pretty spot on. It would be difficult to find a reason to take him over Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, or any of those elite guys. Once they are off the board, though, Mayfield would be the best quarterback to draft. Mayfield also has the benefit of most of his receivers returning. Tampa Bay was able to bring Chris Godwin back, rookie Emeka Egbuka, and they still have Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan.
In terms of where to draft him, though, it may be wiser to wait on Mayfield. In most drafts, players are going to rush to take Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen in around the fourth round, maybe the third. If a player really wants Mayfield as their QB1 (which is a fine strategy), they can afford to keep drafting skill players through the middle rounds. In fact, if Burrow and Hurts are still on the board by the later rounds, players can afford to wait until around Round nine to actually draft Mayfield. Be careful using this strategy, though; there are some leagues where the quarterbacks come off the board early, in which case it’s necessary to take Mayfield earlier.
