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Are Baker Mayfield & Joe Burrow on opposite trajectories?

Liz Loza & Andy Behrens discuss the upcoming second meeting of Baker Mayfield & Joe Burrow as the Cleveland Browns & Cincinnati Bengals face off in Week 7? Is Baker evolving into a low-volume game manager while the Bengals are asking Joe Burrow to let it rip and attempt 30, 40, even 50 passes per game?

Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Video Transcript

LIZ LOZA: Cleveland and Cincinnati, this is a rematch. Remember, these two teams met earlier in the season, and Joe Burrow put up three touchdowns to Baker Mayfield's two. It feels like we have lived many lives, at least in the journeys of both of these quarterbacks since that time, though.

ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, it sure does. That was-- that was the game in which Burrow had, what, like, 90 pass attempts, some ridiculous total of pass attempts, I think. It was also-- it was also the game in which Chubb scored twice, Hunt scored twice.

Like, the running backs just went crazy against Cincinnati. And that-- that Cincinnati run defense remains one of the worst in the league, giving up over 5 yards per carry. So it's clearly a great spot for Kareem Hunt.

LIZ LOZA: It is a great spot for Kareem Hunt. I also think that, you know, Burrow's coming off of some underwhelming efforts in different-- in very difficult match-ups. But the difference to me between these two teams, you have two overall number one picks, right? So, like, that-- that just contextualizes everything. And yet, you have one of them who's being encouraged to throw the ball and the other one being begged not to.

ANDY BEHRENS: [LAUGHS]

LIZ LOZA: And it's so-- that's just, like, such-- I mean, along with the rest of 2020-- such cognitive dissonance. I don't know how you advocate for Baker Mayfield at this point, you know, after-- yes, he was hurt. Yes, the offensive line was banged up. Yes, the match-up was brutal last week.

But also, like, it was such a spot for him to, like, show-- and I hate this sort of, like, culture talk, this, like, leadership nonsense. But it was such an opportunity to allow him, even if he made some mistakes, to, like, let loose and to see-- to see what he could do and to leave the team even, like, energetically. And it just feels like everything is staying really buttoned up. And it-- and it is in such sharp contrast to what Cincinnati is allowing and encouraging Joe Burrow to do.

ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you said it really well. Like, it's-- it's disappointing that Baker Mayfield already seems to be in the sort of game manager phase of his career--

LIZ LOZA: Yeah.

ANDY BEHRENS: --and he's-- and he's this young. But when things are, like, on schedule and on script for Cleveland, they want his pass attempts to be, like, 22, 23. Like, there is just not-- even his multi-touchdown games are, like, 160 yards, 180 yards. You know, they're not-- they're not weeks that help you as a fantasy manager.

It looks OK when you look at the game log. And OK. Two touchdowns. I can live with two touchdowns.

But you can't live with week after week of, like, 170 passing yards. And that is-- that is the kind of scenario that we have here. Like, a-- like, a really good week for Baker Mayfield and the Browns, any time out is, like, he ends up with 185 and a touchdown. And Kareem Hunt and some other running back do all the heavy lifting.

LIZ LOZA: It's also we're noting that the Yahoo consensus, all of us, have Joe Burrow ranked pretty significantly ahead of Baker Mayfield.