We are in the middle of the NFL off-season and this is the time the football columnists start ranking players, and the position which draws the most attention is of course, quarterbacks.

Here in Cleveland, we have a QB that serves as a lightning rod for the national pundits, so there is constant debate around the football cognoscenti as to how good Baker Mayfield really is.

So we decided to enter the fray and decide where Baker Mayfield realistically be on the current ranking of NFL signal callers.

First though, some rules. Any rookie is not eligible for this list. So we will not be including Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Zach Wilson or any other rookie on this list.

We are also not going to include any players entering their second year in the NFL, and that is because of Mayfield. Remember how everyone was hailing Baker as the next great QB following his rookie season of 2018?

So do we, and a year later, he was thought by many (and still is by some) to be nothing more than average. That same thing can happen to Joe Burrow, Tua Tagavailoa, or the new hot commodity, Justin Herbert.

The second time around the league, defensive coordinators start to see your tendencies and make adjustments to take away what you like to do. So, we aren’t going to rate someone real high based on a strong rookie year until we see what happens in a second year.

You can go ahead and call that the Mayfield Rule.

We can be accused of watering down the group, eliminating seven players who could arguably start for their respective teams this fall. However, we feel to give an honest evaluation of the position, you have to have a solid two years of performance to examine.

We will start with the QBs clearly better than Mayfield based on their body of work. Those guys would be Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Deshaun Watson. Tom Brady as well, despite his age. If this was a list of guys we’d rather have Mayfield than, we wouldn’t include the six time Super Bowl winner because of the number of years he will still play.

One can make arguments about Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Ryan Tannehill, Derek Carr, Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan, Kyler Murray, and Matthew Stafford, so whether or not you consider Mayfield better than them depends on how you evaluate quarterbacks.

So, at the very least, we’ve named 13 quarterbacks. If you think Mayfield isn’t as good as any of those names we’ve listed he is the 14th best QB in the NFL. We do not think all of them are better.

Personally, we would rate Ryan and Allen over Mayfield. Prescott is a solid QB and we will see this year on Stafford now that he is with a better team, the Rams. Our opinion is we would rather have Mayfield than those two, understanding both put up big numbers.

Understand in the NFL, if you are losing a lot, defenses give up a lot of yards. Take for example, Prescott’s statistics against the Browns a year ago. He was 41 of 58 for 502 yards and four TD passes. Great numbers, right? Until you understand the score going into the fourth quarter was Cleveland 41, Dallas 14.

It wasn’t Prescott’s fault they were losing that big, but it does make it easier to accumulate stats.

Jackson is a separate case for us, because really he and Mayfield play different positions. We know we are dating ourselves but the Ravens’ QB plays kind of a single wing tailback position. As a passer, Mayfield is better, but Jackson is the better player overall. After all, he won a league MVP.

With the same head coach and offensive coordinator for two consecutive seasons, 2021 should decide the issue on Baker Mayfield. Right now, we have him in the 8-12 range among the league’s quarterbacks.

Another playoff appearance and success there will have him rising up this list with a bullet.