Did Baker Mayfield do Damage to His 2018 Draft Stock?

What did Baker Mayfield dot to his 2018 draft stock?

Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is on his into the 2017 season as the Heisman Trophy favorite. If he were eligible to come out this year, he probably would have been the No. 1 overall pick. There isn’t a quarterback in this class that’s as good as he is.

But he was recently arrested for multiple charges including public intoxication. The NFL doesn’t play that when comes to anything drug or conduct related. A few players including former teammate Joe Mixon won’t be at the combine this year for off-the-field incidents.

So it’s not automatic that we’ll see Mayfield at the combine in 2018. You can say, “Well, quarterbacks hardly ever throw at the combine anyway.” That’s true but all the interviewing is probably the most important part of the combine for quarterbacks.

They’re trying to get to know the potential leaders of their respective franchises as people. So this goes in the minus column for Mayfield before he starts his final collegiate season. This leaves many to wonder if or how much damage Mayfield did to his draft stock.

On one end, he’s a quarterback and NFL franchises are desperate for a good one. On the other end, the NFL can remember everything that 2014 first-round pick Johnny Manziel put himself through. Then there’s the fact that the class of 2018 is strong at quarterback.

Being the first quarterback off the board will be much harder in 2018 than it is this year. So he has to do something in 2017 to justify the risk of drafting him. And he absolutely can’t afford to have another incident from here until the 2018 offseason.