The most famous Jets quarterback goes wild for Baker Mayfield
Joe Namath has been impressed by everyone in the 2018 quarterback class, and he won’t pick a favorite.
He has seen more of Baker Mayfield than the others.
And Namath sure liked what he saw.
“I would rather Alabama not play against Mayfield, against that Oklahoma team, as good as Georgia turned out to be,” Namath said, referring to Mayfield’s 54-48 double-overtime loss that sent Georgia to the College Football Playoff championship game against Namath’s Crimson Tide.
Asked what stuck out to him about Mayfield, Namath said: “Well everything. His demeanor. His attitude. He has a spark. He has a personality that shows a no-quit kind of guy. The anger gets in him. The competitiveness comes to the surface. You can see it, you can see the enthusiasm. His teammates, from what I’ve seen, trusted in him, counted on him. And boy, his footwork, his passing ability … he looked like a tough quarterback to defense. Those other guys too, but he looked damn good.”
Namath mentioned Drew Brees and was asked if Mayfield reminded him of the Saints quarterback.
“A bit. If anything, Mayfield may even have slightly quicker feet, I’m not sure. I don’t have any doubt that if he doesn’t get hurt, he’s gonna be around, man,” Namath said. “The guy can flat pass that ball and move around beautifully.”
Namath said he likes Mayfield’s field vision and decision-making.
“I’ve seen Mayfield be able to go not from his first receiver to his second, but even to his third and his fourth,” Namath said. “That’s important. But you gotta have the time or you gotta buy the time with your feet, and he’s done that.”
But Namath refuses to play GM and pick his favorite quarterback on Thursday night.
“I haven’t met these guys,” Namath said. “I gotta look him in the eye. I gotta know what kind of guy he is personally. I have not seen enough of any of them and I haven’t met any of them, so I wouldn’t say, ‘I think they should get this guy.’ ”
Namath also gushed over Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Mason Rudolph and, to a lesser degree, Lamar Jackson.
“I don’t know that he’s the kind of passer that these other guys are,” Namath said of Jackson. “I don’t think he is, from what I’ve seen. He’s had a God-given ability that’s better than any of the rest of the guys to run the ball, too, and that is a sensational ability, but in pro football, it’s questionable how long the body can hold up from the hits. He was nothing but a winner since his high school days, and he’s thrown some beautiful passes, but not with the kind of consistent accuracy that I’ve seen these other guys throw.”
Namath lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan from the time he was a rookie.
“That can be a bit distracting at times,” Namath said. “It can weaken your focus, you might say. It’s a dangerous spot for a ballplayer to maintain his focus on his job the way a coach would like him to maintain his focus.”
So how did he maintain his focus?
“It was a bit scattered from time to time, I have to admit,” Namath said, and chuckled. “I maintained my focus after a couple of tough losses, man. When you know your team lost because it was totally your fault, but 99 percent it was on you, that you played like a dog, that got my attention.”
He doesn’t recommend living off Broadway for the new Jets quarterback.
“As far as efficiency goes and time management and what’s important on your schedule, being close to where your job is, being close to where you need to be … Florham Park, I would stay as close to that as possible,” Namath said. “Even back then, I never liked sitting in a vehicle trying to get from Point A to Point B.”
Young Namath was more concerned with his surgical knee than the New York microscope. That was in the pre-TMZ, Page Six and social media days.
“There wasn’t as much scrutiny,” Namath said. “You weren’t as much on stage, so to speak.”
Namath, so proud of his Joe Namath Foundation supporting children’s charities and neurological research (JoeNamath.org) was asked if he had any advice for the incoming Jets quarterback.
“I think you keep your head on straight,” Namath said. “The less you read about yourself, the less you watch yourself being critiqued, the better off you’re gonna be.”
Namath admitted the outside noise affected him at first.
“It was early on until it literally dawned on me that I knew more about what I was doing in the team than what I was hearing and reading about,” he said.
Mayfield has been known to let negativity fuel his almighty chip.
“To each his own,” Namath said. “I can buy that.”
Namath is excited and hopeful about the 2018 Jets season.
“I’m also hoping that they can get a guy ready for this season,” he said. “I’m still not thinking about these guys need to be brought along so slowly. You don’t want to throw him into the fire if he’s not ready, but I think these kids are probably prepared better than yesteryear and …
“We want to win now. You want to win now. Been trying to build a team for some time, and I think the fans want to see it now.”
Forty-nine years after Super Bowl III.