If I am Cleveland Browns management, I am thinking long and hard before signing Baker Mayfield to any type of “franchise quarterback” contract. They loaded the roster for him this year and the Browns are a .500 team. If you start paying Baker $40 million a year, you are not going to have money to keep an all-star roster around him and frankly, he hasn’t shown enough on the field to justify that type of contract. Talent-wise he’s a lot closer to Kirk Cousins than Patrick Mahomes and frankly I do not see too many teams beating down the free-agent door to sign him to a mega-deal. Going to agree with Rex Ryan’s analysis, when he said “He’s not terrible but he’s not elite. He’s not going to lose you games but he isn’t going to win you games either. In every meaningful stat, he’s ranked in the 20s in the league among starting quarterbacks.” On the other side, his “At Home with Baker Mayfield” Progressive commercials are hilarious…
What a difference seven weeks make. Back on Sept. 27, the Gators were ranked #10 in the nation with a 3-1 record with the only blemish being a two-point loss to then #1 Alabama. FSU was 0-4 and had an inexplicable loss to a Jacksonville State team. Back then if you told me one of those guys was going to get fired this week, I would not have guessed it would be the guy in the orange and blue. Still, once again, we have a ridiculous situation where a public university is going to spend millions paying some guy and his staff not to coach and spend millions more to hire a replacement. Frankly, I find it distasteful that one losing season in that league — even if you won a national championship a few years earlier (like Ed Orgeron) – gets you fired…
Speaking of college football, I can’t help but wonder if Friday will be either the last or next to last meeting ever between USF and UCF. With the Knights eventually joining another conference, it is not as simple as saying let the series continue as a non-conference game as both teams have multiple non-conference games already scheduled for the years ahead. Mentioned in an earlier column that if UCF wanted to be vindictive, they have every right to tell USF they don’t need them anymore – particularly after the Bulls tried to block their admission to the Big East for years. And frankly, the Bulls need a yearly game with the Knights a lot more than the Knights need one with the Bulls. Still, here’s hoping the Presidents and ADs from both schools can find a way to make this series continue…
I’ve had amnesia for as long as I can’t remember….
A lot of baseball fans talk about the ridiculous numbers posted by Cy Young and other players from a century ago, but these fairly modern baseball stats are almost as crazy. Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters in his career, only 133 of them ever saw a 3-0 count against Maddux and that number included intentional walks. More men have walked on the moon (12) then have scored earned runs in the post-season against Mariano Rivera (11). Rivera pitched in 96 playoff games over 141 innings and compiled a 0.70 ERA. For Tony Gwynn’s career average to drop below .300, he would have had to play more than two additional seasons and go zero of 1,183 for it to drop to .2994. And finally, one of my favorites, if player hit a home run and a single in five at-bats every game for 162 games, his OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) of 1.400 would still be less than Barry Bonds OPS in 2004 (1.422)…
Back in 2017, I really wanted UCF to get into the College Football Playoff but not because I was screaming for fairness or access, I was carrying their banner because I truly believed they were one of the four best teams in the country. This year, I am not convinced Cincinnati is one of the four best but as teams like Oregon, Michigan State, Oklahoma continue to shoot themselves in the foot, I can see where the Bearcats might at least have a halfway decent shot to get in. If they do get in and let’s say lose by three touchdowns, you are going to hear a million fans scream – “see they never belonged.” But that will be total hogwash. I would like to point out that since this system started in 2014, we have seen some of the “four best” teams in the country like FSU lose by 39, Oklahoma lose by 20 and 35, Michigan State lose by 38, Notre Dame lose by 27, Ohio State lose by 31 and mighty Clemson lose by 21 and not one peep from the Power 5 Elites talking about how those teams “did not belong”. Just saying if Cincy does get in and lose big, they are no different than power fives mentioned above…
Just occurred to me that the Swiss Military must have been pretty confident of victory because they included a corkscrew on their knives….
