THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – A busy first three days with the Rams followed with a mini bye week before transitioning to preparation for Monday Night Football against the Packers in Week 15 for quarterback Baker Mayfield.
It was a much-welcomed chance for Mayfield to catch his breath.
"It's definitely nice to be able to take a deep breath a little bit," Mayfield said. "No, obviously today was our pseudo- Wednesday practice. So the first part of the game plan getting used to it, getting out there for some actual live reps. But it's going to be nice for me just being a really routine guy that it'll be good going into this next game, having a full week of practice and prep."
Other than everything being pushed back a day, this week is Mayfield's first normal game week with the Rams after the short turnaround between his arrival in Los Angeles and facing the Raiders on Thursday Night Football.
Even with that truncated preparation, Mayfield was able to make a fairly smooth transition between his time in multiple offensive systems throughout his career and the protection scheme carryover from his time working with Bill Callahan in Cleveland. Mayfield also echoed Rams head coach Sean McVay in crediting the collaboration with pass game coordinator Zac Robinson and offensive coordinator Liam Coen for putting him in position to succeed so quickly.
"I think that's big and I think he'd be better equipped to answer that, but there are a lot of similarities, just based on my history with some similar coaches that he's worked with and that's a huge part of it," McVay said. "And that's a big part of what you and the center are responsible for as a quarterback, and I think that made it a little bit more seamless. But I don't think by any stretch does it minimize how impressive it is, what he's done."
What's stuck with Mayfield the most over the last week has been the "little moments" in last week's game of his new teammates communicating with him. He thought back to the game-winning drive and the help he was getting on the nuances of operating L.A.'s offense, as well as center Brian Allen yelling into his face what the cadence is with McVay yelling the same thing in his ear.
With where Mayfield is at currently, his goal is to learn the base install of the offense as much as he can, but he also understand the importance of avoiding information overflow given the importance of learning the gameplan. He wants to learn the smaller details, like the origins of certain terminology, but ultimately his learning is going to be game-plan oriented.
Beyond that, now that he's getting more settled, he's focused on improving over the next four games.
"Like I said after the game, that was such a whirlwind right there but I'm looking to get better each week," Mayfield said. "Get to a certain point of just being the best version of me and elevating this team in any way I can and just being myself. Circumstances happened and now I'm here, so I'm going try and make the most of it."
