Why Rams’ Baker Mayfield already has insight on Broncos’ vaunted defense
Baker Mayfield missed his first chance to play against the Denver Broncos this season, but the Rams quarterback will get that opportunity Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
Late last month, Mayfield was a member of the Carolina Panthers when he was benched in favor of Sam Darnold going into the game against the Broncos.
Just more than a week later, he was released and claimed off waivers. by the Rams.
“It was my last game prep in Carolina so I’m familiar with the structure of the defense,” Mayfield said Wednesday. “They’re playing at a high level — that hasn’t stopped.”
Mayfield is not exaggerating.
The Broncos, like the Rams, are 4-10.
The Rams lost center Brian Allen and receiver Ben Skowronek to season-ending calf injuries, adding to an injury-ravaged season.
But while a Broncos offense under first-year coach Nathaniel Hackett has been anemic — the Russell Wilson-led unit ranks last in the NFL in scoring, just behind the Rams — a defense coordinated by former Rams assistant Ejiro Evero statistically ranks among the NFL’s best.
The Broncos are giving up 18.1 points per game, third fewest in the league. They rank fifth in total defense and passing defense, 14th in rushing defense.
The Broncos traded star pass rusher Bradley Chubb to the Miami Dolphins in November, but a unit led by Pro Bowl cornerback Pat Surtain and safety Justin Simmons has endured under Evero.
Hackett and Evero were college teammates at UC Davis and assistants in Tampa Bay in 2007. Evero joined Sean McVay’s staff in 2017 as safeties coach, and last season coached defensive backs and was defensive passing game coordinator for a team that won Super Bowl LVI.
A few days later, the Broncos announced the hiring of Evero.
“Whenever you hire somebody that hasn’t been a coordinator, you never really know what’s going to happen, how it’s going to be in a game, because that’s really what matters most,” Hackett said Wednesday during a conference call with Los Angeles reporters. “And I think that he’s gone above and beyond and been better than even what I thought he would be, and I think pretty highly of him.
“But just the communication, the work ethic, the man that he is — all of those things have been absolutely phenomenal, and you see it in the defensive play.”
Dec. 23 will mark the 50th anniversary of the ‘Immaculate Reception,’ Franco Harris’ famous catch in 1972 that changed the course of Steelers football.
Mayfield is preparing for his second start for the Rams.
On Dec. 8, he came off the bench and led them to a dramatic last-minute victory over the Las Vegas Raiders.
In Monday night’s 24-12 defeat by the Green Bay Packers, Mayfield started and completed 12 of 21 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, with an interception.
“There was some good things and then there’s some things too that he can certainly learn from,” McVay said. “And it’s not exclusively to him, where there’s a lot of moving parts up front and at the skill positions with guys that are playing for the first time and he’s certainly playing with them for the first time as well.”
McVay has three more games to assess Mayfield. It will be “challenging,” McVay said, because of the Rams’ injury situation.
“It’s one thing to plug one, two guys in,” McVay said. “It’s another thing to have as many different moving parts as we’ve had, which is different than anything, even close to anything I’ve experienced.”
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