Cleveland Browns’ Mayfield, Chubb, Callaway Uptrending

The Cleveland Browns have been praised for their rookies all season long and these three offensive stars have been trending upwards as of late

There are definite signs that the Cleveland Browns are improving—not just generally, but significantly enough that they can play winning football down the stretch. And at least three players are trending upwards: Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb and Antonio Callaway.

Baker Mayfield, Quarterback

The eyeball tests seems to show that Baker Mayfield is improving. The buzz among media and fans seems to be that he appears more in command now, and is rapidly developing his ability to find secondary receivers and throw the ball into a tight window. The numbers seem to agree.

Using the NFL Passer Rating, which is still one of the best evaluation metrics around, the numbers vary wildly from week to week and opponent to opponent, but looking over a 10 game sample, there seems to be some significant trending upwards. Game 10’s amazing 151.2 notwithstanding, it looks like Mayfield is making better decisions and he is taking less punishment with a new offensive coordinator in Freddie Kitchens. It goes without saying that Mayfield is helped by his experience in college, which included four full years of outstanding major college ball.

Here’s a graph t show Mayfield’s rating as the year goes on.

For the year, Mayfield rates at 87.5, which is good for 23rd among NFL starting quarterbacks. It would not be a shock if he plays at a level of around 100 for the rest of the year, or in other words among the top ten in the NFL. This despite having a wide receiver corps that is not the greatest, but more about that later.