Baker Mayfield Biography

Baker Mayfield was born Baker Reagan Mayfield, on April 14, 1995, in Austin, Texas, US, to James and Gina Mayfield. He was the younger of the two sons of his parents and grew up with his brother, Matt.

His father worked as a private equity consultant, while his mother was a homemaker. The family faced major financial issues during Mayfield’s senior year in high school. They thus sold their family home and stayed in several rental homes.

Mayfield’s father was a footballer with the University of Houston for 3 years but went unlettered. Mayfield, too, grew up supporting Oklahoma and often attended football matches.

Mayfield began his career as a starting quarterback for the football team of the Lake Travis High School Cavaliers in Austin. He helped them win the 2011 4A State Championship.

Following his high school, he was a 3-star recruit and was offered scholarships by Florida Atlantic, North Texas, New Mexico, Rice, Wyoming, and Sam Houston State universities. He, however, decided to try for walk-on offers from Texas Tech, Baylor, and Washington State.

Baker Mayfield eventually started his college football with Texas Tech University in 2013. He was the first walk-on true freshman quarterback who began an FBS season opening in 2013, when he was chosen by the Texas Tech Red Raiders as their starting quarterback.

His 413 passing yards and 4 touchdowns in his first game helped him earn the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Week award. He also gathered 2,315 throwing yards and 12 touchdowns in the season, but left the team due to a communication gap with the coaching staff.

Baker Mayfield then transferred to the University of Oklahoma in 2014 and was supposed to play for the Oklahoma Sooners. However, he missed out on a year due to eligibility issues and Big 12 transfer regulations.

The following year, Mayfield earned the starting position in the team. In the 2015 season, Mayfield led the Sooners to the Orange Bowl, though they lost the title to Clemson. The Sooners then defeated Auburn in the Sugar Bowl the next season, and Mayfield earned the Most Valuable Player (MVP) honor.

In 2017, Mayfield led Oklahoma to defeat TCU Horned Frogs, to win their third back-to-back Big 12 title. That year, Mayfield also won the Heisman Trophy, with 732 first-place votes and 2,398 points in total. He thus scripted history as the first walk-on player in history to win the coveted award.

In 2018, Baker Mayfield stepped into the NFL Draft as a top prospect. He was soon picked by the Cleveland Browns, as the first overall choice. Mayfield signed a 4-year rookie contract with the Browns on July 24, 2018, with a base salary of $32.68 million.

He made his NFL debut with the Week 3 game against the New York Jets, filling in for Tyrod Taylor, who was injured. His team won 21-17. Soon, Mayfield became the starting quarterback of the team and helped them gain a 7-8-1 record.

In his rookie season, he broke the record for touchdown passes by a rookie and surpassed Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson with his 27 touchdown passes. The 2020 season was Mayfield’s greatest with the Browns, as he tossed for 4,030 yards and scored 30 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He also recorded a playoff win against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card Round.

The Browns offered Mayfield a fifth-year contract for at least $18.9 million in the 2022 season. The Browns missed the playoffs, but Baker played in-spite of a partially torn labrum.

He got injured while trying to make a tackle and thus played with a shoulder harness for most of the season. Later, he also suffered from a broken humerus bone in the same shoulder. Mayfield eventually withdrew from the final match of the season, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, to opt for a surgery instead.

On July 6, 2022, Mayfield was traded off for a conditional 2024 fifth-round selection, to the Carolina Panthers. While at Carolina Panthers, Mayfield had a tough competition with Sam Darnold for the starting spot.

In the 2022 season, Mayfield was chosen as the starter but sprained his ankle in a Week 5 match against the San Francisco 49ers. He got back to the field in Week 8 but soon requested a release.

The Los Angeles Rams picked him up on December 6, 2022. A couple of days later, Mayfield faced the Las Vegas Raiders. In the final moments of the game, Mayfield recorded a 98-yard drive, one of his longest, that helped the Rams win the game.

He threw his 100th career passing touchdown in Week 15 match against the Green Bay Packers. He then signed a year-long contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on March 16, 2023.

Baker Mayfield married Emily Wilkinson, his long-time girlfriend, on July 5, 2019. The two began a relationship in 2017.

Mayfield apparently first saw Emily when he played for the University of Oklahoma. Back then, Mayfield spotted an unknown face in the crowd that had gathered to watch his game, while he was FaceTiming his brother after a game.

Emily is from Nebraska and is a business administration graduate. While she initially worked at a plastic surgeon’s office, she later became an Instagram influencer.

Emily is a huge supporter of Mayfield and often defends him against trolls through her social media posts. She has also appeared in Progressive Insurance commercials with Mayfield.

During his NCAA days, Mayfield won countless awards, such as the Heisman Trophy (2017), the Maxwell Award (2017), and the Burlsworth Trophy (2015, 2016). He was also the Associated Press Player of the Year (2017), a 2-time Sporting News Player of the Year (2015, 2017), and a 2-time First-Team All-American (2015, 2017).

In his NFL days, he has been a 7-time Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week, a 2-time Offensive Player of the Week (2018, 2020), and the 2018 PFT Rookie of the Year.