Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback Baker Mayfield had an interesting road to get to where he is today. Mayfield was a native of Austin, Texas, where he oddly enough grew up as a fan of the Oklahoma Sooners despite being born where their biggest rival is located. While the road to success is often not smooth, Mayfield’s trip was exceptionally bumpy.
A college career that started with him being a walk-on that wound up turning into a Heisman Trophy-winning career, as well as a College Football Playoff berth, Mayfield’s road to the NFL has seen tremendous highs and lows throughout its journey. Moments both professional and personal have shaped who he is and helped tell the story of how he got to where he is today.
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Baker Mayfield’s College Football Career
Mayfield attended Lake Travis High School Cavaliers football team in Austin, where he was a lightly recruited three-star quarterback. While Mayfield did receive scholarship offers, none of them came from a Power Five school. Realizing that was where he wanted to be, he chose to attend Texas Tech as a preferred walk-on to start his college career.
Right out of the gate, even as a walk-on, Mayfield was given an opportunity to start in his freshman season and was the first walk-on true freshman QB to start an FBS season opener at the position.
Mayfield played in eight games (started seven), but he left Texas Tech after just one season. In 2014, Mayfield opted to transfer to the University of Oklahoma and decided to once again walk on to the football team.
However, Mayfield was not eligible to play until the 2015 season. He also lost a season of eligibility due to Big 12 conference transfer rules following an unsuccessful appeal of his transfer restrictions.
Mayfield went on to play three seasons for the Sooners. During his time with the team, he led the program to two playoff appearances and won the Heisman Trophy in 2017, becoming the first and only walk-on player to ever win the award.
Mayfield finished his career at Oklahoma 33-6 and became one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in franchise history.
When Was Mayfield Drafted?
Following his impressive college career, Mayfield went on to be the first overall selection by the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft.
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Since being drafted, however, the level of success he had in college has not quite translated. As a result, Mayfield has since bounced around the league to four different NFL teams.
While the talent is evident, and Mayfield is a starting QB in the NFL by every metric and currently is for the Buccaneers, he has struggled to find stability and solid ground so far in his career and hopes Tampa Bay can provide that for him now.