Reigning Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield is almost certain to be a top ten pick come draft night later this month. Yet, he's come under more scrutiny than the vast majority of the draft class. From character concerns, and worries about his height and athleticism, to questions over how valid his college numbers are coming out of the Big 12 which is a notoriously soft defensive conference, Mayfield has heard it all.His doubters are plenty and loud, and be sure he knows exactly who they are.

According to the MMQB's Peter King  the former Oklahoma signal caller keeps a list of media members who he believes have 'crossed the line' as well as screenshots of all their tweets that he deems to be offensive or overly critical of him. 

"Today, Mayfield is keeping a list of the media members who have crossed a line, he says, and he stores screenshots of offending tweets in his phone," King noted. "All of it serves as motivation when he's working out alone, he told [Russell] Wilson."

Criticism has long been a motivational tool for Mayfield, going back to his college days: “I can ignore it,” he said. “Although some things really tick me off and I want to prove them wrong.”

His college teammate and fellow draft hopeful, Mark Andrews, revealed that the smallest piece of criticism can affect Mayfield in a big way: “It could be the smallest thing in the world, but in his head it’s the world ending.” the tight end said. 

This all paints a picture of a man, and a player, who has been doubted all his life on the field and works desperately hard to prove people wrong.

The approach may lead some teams to judge him as being to fragile and open to outside noise affecting him, but at the end of the day it serves as a motivational tool that helps him become a better player. So who is anyone to tell him to stop?

Mayfield has always, and will always, play with an enormous chip on his shoulder. One that his college coach, Lincoln Riley, once said was as big as his 1,800-square-foot office.

He isn't the first to hold that attitude and he won't be the last.

It clearly works for him too; he completed 68.5% of his passes for 14607 yards, 131 TD's and only 30 picks in his college career, culminating with his outstanding senior year in 2017 in which he threw for 4,627, 43 touchdowns and six interceptions on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy.

The 22-year-old completed an astonishing 70.9% and 70.5% of passes over his final two seasons in Norman and is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished passers in college football history. 

Though Mayfield says he keeps tabs on his critics, he also realises he can't let them affect him too much: 

"At the same time it really doesn't bother me that much," Mayfield said. "Because I know the people that say some of these things have never actually taken a snap behind center, never had a 300-pound lineman about to hit them while they have to read the defense downfield.

"If I was worried too much about it, I'd be worried about the wrong things. But I do use some of it as motivation. I can listen to all the people patting me on the back, or I can listen to the people saying I need to get better. I know I need to get better, or else there would be nobody saying that."

Though Mayfield thinks he can silence the critics with strong play at the next level, former draft bust Ryan Leaf is concerned about how he will deal with his failures when they come. 

If Leaf isn't on Mayfield's list already, he surely is after saying this about him: “The highly competitive, borderline arrogant, angry individual.

“The biggest thing for me will be how he deals with failure. That’s where my downfall was, when things began to fall apart, how I was able to deal with that. When the media is on you, you play a bad game, your whole city is on you, that’s where we’ll see where Baker Mayfield is at. Right now there’s no evidence to back up that when things get tough, he won’t break.”.

The book on Baker Mayfield is still open, and it's up to him what the next chapter will be. If his career proves to be a success and he keeps using his critics to motivate him, then who are we to judge? 

You do you, Baker.