Baker Mayfield is the star QB prospect NFL fans should be getting to know

At the beginning of the season, it was a near consensus that USC's Sam Darnold was the best quarterback prospect in the 2018 NFL draft class, followed closely by UCLA's Josh Rosen, Louisville's Lamar Jackson, and Wyoming's Josh Allen. However, it is Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield who is quickly proving to be the cream of the crop thus far.

Mayfield is ascending to the top of the Heisman Trophy race, after Penn State's Saquon Barkley fizzled out and, with apologies to Stanford's Bryce Love, no player has been more important to their team this year than the Oklahoma quarterback.

The redshirt senior went ballistic last week for 598 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions in a 62-52 victory over Oklahoma State, and followed it up Saturday by going 18-of-27 for 333 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions during a 38-20 win over TCU, who boasted the nation's sixth-ranked defense.

Slowly but surely, the idea that Mayfield ought to be taken first in next spring's draft is quickly gaining traction. Pro Football Focus selected Mayfield first overall to the moribund Cleveland Browns in their latest mock draft, and he tops their college football quarterback rankings this season, in large part due to his accuracy and on-field poise.

Mayfield shows veteran-like composure when maneuvering in the pocket and does an excellent job of looking off his initial read before finding his target. Throughout the season, Mayfield has shown off NFL-level accuracy and arm strength, while leading the Sooners past every challenge in their way, including an early season victory on the road against Ohio State. Mayfield's detractors have pointed to his lack of ideal quarterback size, a criticism that has been rendered moot with the success of Tyrod Taylor, Drew Brees, and Russell Wilson, with the latter two in the thick of the NFL MVP race. This isn't to say Mayfield will instantly replicate Brees or Wilson's production, merely that writing him off due to his size seems like an archaic evaluation tool.

Although the 2018 draft class is shaping up to be one of the best quarterback cohorts in recent memory, Mayfield's peers have their flaws. Darnold hasn't been the Andrew Luck prototype some had envisioned and has a tendency to throw passes into double and triple coverage. Rosen has an NFL-ready arm and there are games when he looks like an NFL starter, but he's also proven to be wildly inconsistent. Jackson is undoubtedly the most fun player in college football and it's possible he revolutionizes the game, but he struggles with accuracy and it could be telling in the NFL. Allen's physical gifts will generate plenty of hype over the winter, but the fact that such tools can't even translate to a 60 percent completion rate represents one of several red flags when evaluating his game. In the end, Mayfield's flaws may be the easiest to live with compared to the rest of the 2018 group.

There's plenty of time until the 2018 NFL Draft. In the interim, prepare yourself for the idea that Mayfield goes off the board first after proving his mettle on a weekly basis.