Note: I'm not, nor have I ever been, a Browns fan. I've always been a Sooners fan, since I was in grade school. And if you're a serious OU fan, you root for your guys no matter what team they end up on. Not the team, but the player.


Anyway . . .

I get that the NFL and college are greatly different levels of play. But throwing the football is throwing the football.

I admit I didn't see a single Browns preseason game, not even any highlights, so I can't speak intelligently to that. But Baker has always been an accurate passer, and unless he's injured I don't really see how he could suddenly not be accurate.

My guess is that he'll settle down in the regular season, unless his o-line just craps the bed.

But you have made me curious enough about this, that I'm going to log off of here and try to check out some Browns preseason highlights/lowlights.
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So you can be very objective correct ?:-)

No it's not, especially when under pressure. Your mechanics change IF you can't handle the heat. Baker operated from the spread in college where he did not have to throw WRs open because they are already open. NFL not so much. There is a lot of tape on BM now in just his 1/2 season of play last year. Let's see IF he can handle the heat eventually.

Thank you for your honesty.:-) Explains a lot !!

Thank you ! :-)
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Actually, I can be pretty objective about Sooner players. Just because I root for them while they play for OU doesn't mean I can't use my eyes and brain like a mature adult and see them for who and what they are.

I guess you never watched Baker in college, because he's been throwing guys open for years before he got the the NFL. Granted, he didn't have to do it as often as he's had to in the pros, or as much as he'll have to down the road.

As for his mechanics, well, there's no question that his mechanics are well-suited to the pro game. He has a very quick release, can put a lot of zip on the ball, and can throw every throw. From a variety of arm angles.

Well, except for the 80-yards-through-the-air-Mahomes-throw, but who can do that besides Mahomes?

So I just finished watching Baker's drives in the preseason. He only played in week 1 for a single drive and a couple drives in week 3, so that didn't take long.

He was 5-of-6 for 77 yds and a TD in week 1. 'Nuff said.

He was 10-of-26 with an INT in week 3. Looks like a real drop off on paper.

But I watched the entirety of his drives in week 3, and honestly I'm not seeing what you're saying. He was accurate and his mechanics were good.

Now, he was without several key players, and his offensive line didn't play that well, giving up several sacks/hits on Baker, and at least a couple times he probably should've just thrown the ball away, but let's be real. He's 24 (25?) years old. He still thinks he can pull off miracles on every down and distance.

Overall though, I didn't see Baker throw a lot of bad passes.

I did see a couple receivers drop passes, but they were 3rd and 4th string guys, so besides the fact that they're 3rd and 4th string for a reason, Baker probably didn't have much time to get familiar with them either. He overthrew these guys several times.

Four or five times Baker tried to fit a ball into a spot that was just too thin. At least two could've been, and probably should've been, INTs. But in every case but two, the ball was accurately thrown. The receivers had a chance to catch the ball. It just didn't work out that way.

And really, I didn't see a lot of "happy feet" either. I saw Baker being Baker. Nothing extra in his movement/footwork that I could point to and say, "hmm, where did that come from?"

The biggest issue I saw is potentially a big one. And that's that Baker wasn't on time too much. And in the NFL a QB pretty much has to be able to throw on time, as there are just so many timing routes in the NFL.

As far as I could tell, sometimes that was because he was being pressured so early in the play (OL not doing their jobs), but in some of those plays Baker was just flat late (sometimes this is a product of bad footwork, Cam Newton being the latest example of this kind of issue). Though I think once he was really early.

But as I said, most of his passes were 'catchable' by his receivers, meaning they hit them basically well within their catch-radius. Basically in the hands a lot of the time.

My surmise is that there's nothing wrong with his mechanics; he's throwing the ball with plenty of zip and accuracy. His problems are that he's not throwing on time enough and that he's trying to fit balls into spaces that are too small, IMO.

The first part of that might be linked to footwork. The second part is just Baker trying to thread needles; he needs to dial back the enthusiasm a bit and throw more conservatively. But that's not a footwork issue, that's a maturity issue.

Oh, and you're welcome.

And thanks again for convincing me I had to take a look at the tapes.
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Mega there are quite a few things that could affect accuracy. I’m not watching garbage preseason Browns game but here are a couple you should watch out for if you’re really rooting for the kid.

Mental is very much a thing. Get picked on a couple throws you thought you had and you start shading to the outside or something. I doubt Bakers confidence is shot but it’s possible. His moron coach could also be fucking with his head. If he’s out there thinking instead of playing he’ll be fucked.

His moron coach might be tweaking his mechanics a bit and that can Bone a guy
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I can agree with all of that.

Btw, I'm not a big, frothing-at-the-mouth Baker fan, But he's the best QB Oklahoma has produced in my lifetime, and I respect and admire him and his play for that. But none of that means I think he's going to win every game, or take the football world by storm. All it means is that I hope he has a solidly successful career in the NFL.
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Same old Browns??
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D couldn't stop the run and the OL looks like shit.
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I tried to tell y’all
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You may have been right, but you cant take their 2019 offseason champions trophy away from them. They won that fair and square.
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I didn’t get the kc game and then the Browns were taken off “for something more competitive “
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What does Danica Patrick have to say this morning?
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Now then, why are the Browns getting so much hype?
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Because they have cool stripes in their end zones? :-)
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Sorry if this is Q, but I just read that Demetrius Harris was flagged for two holding penalties which goes along with a strong stat line of 0 receptions for 0 yards on one target. Strong.
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BROKE. DICK. CORNER. JOHN.

Browns’ CB Denzel Ward, listed as questionable for Sunday due to a hamstring injury, is not expected to play against the Ravens, per source. It will be his second consecutive missed game.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 29, 2019

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