Cleveland Browns: The Progression of Baker Mayfield at quarter-mark

Where Mayfield shows room for improvement

It has been apparent that, up until Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, Stefanski has been keeping the playbook pretty basic for the most part. As we are past the quarter-mark of the season, we will begin to see more wrinkles to the playbook, and more than likely more put on the plate of Mayfield. How he will handle this uptick in installation to the playbook will be a telling sign for the Browns moving forward.

As he looks to continue to move the needle in the right direction, there is still some refining to do to his game. Coming out of college, Mayfield was one of the most accurate passers making their way into the NFL, but recently his throws to the intermediate and deep range have been a bit sporadic. One week he drops a dime to Odell Beckham Jr. for a touchdown, then two weeks later he overshoots him running free down the sideline.

His deep ball is not the main issue here, but his intermediate throws over the middle, as he has been skying them over the heads of his intended receivers. The tale is that accuracy cannot be taught, but the key here is Mayfield has had it, and it is just a matter of finding his footing and confidence again. The overthinking his reads and double-clutching passes leads me to believe Mayfield is suffering from limited confidence as he continues to pick up the pieces from a year ago.

In addition to his accuracy, Mayfield is still displaying the tendency to bail from a clean pocket. Up against the Browns on Sunday, Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott showed immense poise to slide in the pocket and step up into space; Mayfield is still bailing to his right when he begins to feel pressure in his face.

There are also plenty of significant signs of life from Mayfield over the first quarter of the season, however.