Cleveland Browns: Why Baker Mayfield had a sophomore slump

Offensive Line Coach Bob Wylie

Bob Wylie was hilarious on Hard Knocks featuring the Browns because of his rant against advanced conditioning (“Did you know, World War I and World War II, all those guys that fought in that war…they did push-ups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, climb the rope and ran. None of this fancy stuff. And they won two World Wars! Do you think they were worried when they were running across Normandy about freaking stretching?”)

Wylie is never going to be hired as the conditioning coach, but the old guy does know a lot about how to play offensive line. 2018 was probably the greatest performance of his career, as the Browns offensive line started out as the absolute pits at the beginning of the year, but became an elite unit by the end of the season. They gave up 33 sacks in the first eight games, but only five sacks in the last eight games. They literally went from worst to first, at least statistically, in the same season. Offensive linemen Greg Robinson, Joel Bitonio, J.C. Tretter, Kevin Zeitler and Chris Hubbard missed ZERO snaps in the last eight games of 2018.

Without Wylie, Robinson and Hubbard did not have good seasons in 2019. Zeitler was traded to the New York Giants and Austin Corbett was not able to develop in time to replace him (he did, however, pull it together after being traded to the Rams, and then getting his chance with zero missed snaps the rest of the season).

It may be that the Browns missed their crusty old offensive line coach more than they realized.