Cleveland Browns: Baker Mayfield providing reasons for concern, not to give up

Cleveland Browns can still win with Baker Mayfield

Fans shouldn’t give up on Baker Mayfield, but there is cause for concern

The Cleveland Browns four-game streak came to an end on Sunday, as the team was shellacked 38-7 by the divison rival Pittsburgh Steelers. Cleveland was thoroughly outplayed at every position, but none more polarizing than at quarterback. Before leaving the game in the third quarter for injury protection, Baker Mayfield had perhaps the worst outing of his professional career. Mayfield has yet to perform well over a full game this season, and while there is no reason to give up on the 25-year-old, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about his future.

Mayfield looked like a franchise QB as a rookie. He was decisive, smart, and accurate. He took a step back in 2019, and the situation around him (coaching and the offensive line) did him zero favors. There were bright spots, and things weren’t really as bad as they were made out to be. With Kevin Stefanski at the helm heading into 2020, Mayfield was expected to resume his development, with some growing pains early.

Stefanski’s zone-run and heavy play action-based system was entirely new to Mayfield, who had played in vertical schemes his entire football career up to this point. Under Stefanski in 2019, Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins struggled for the first quarter of the season, then proceeded to have the best campaign of his career. It was always going to take time with Mayfield, and that is still the case, even if the early returns are less than encouraging.

In six games this season, Mayfield has completed 103 of 170 attempts (60.6%) for 1,095 yards, 6.4 yards per attempt, 10 touchdowns, and six interceptions. Courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Mayfield’s adjusted completion percentage, which accounts for “dropped passes, throwaways, spiked balls, batted passes, and passes where the QB was hit while they threw the ball”, is 73%, which ranks 23rd out of 29 eligible QBs this season. Mayfield’s 32.7 passing grade against Pittsburgh was by far the worst of his career. It didn’t help that the offensive line gave up 16 pressures on the day.

The Browns are 4-2 this season, but that’s not really because of Mayfield. Cleveland’s running game has been the catalyst behind the team’s offensive success, at least from Weeks 2 to 5. The offensive line, missing Wyatt Teller (who was on an All-Pro trajectory before suffering a calf strain) was absolutely manhandled by the Steelers, and the Browns couldn’t get anything going on the ground. Mayfield was also pressured on 47% of his dropbacks, and has not been good under pressure this season. Mayfield was far from the only problem against Pittsburgh, but he was certainly not the solution either.

If there is one thing that Mayfield is doing well right now, it’s throwing off of bootleg action. Getting him outside the pocket and on the move, in a designed fashion, seems to make him much more comfortable. When he’s forced to sit in the pocket, he struggles, and opposing defenses know that. Mayfield has yet to prove that he can pick apart a defense when given time. He’s still making poor reads (see Minkah Fitzpatrick’s pick-six and Bobby Okereke’s interception in Week 5), and is consistently missing high.

It is still early, but Mayfield still often looks like a player in his third pro game, rather than his third pro season. He is a gunslinger, but that’s not an excuse for flat-out not seeing lurking defenders.

There are moments when he’ll do something right, such as his touchdown passes to Rashard Higgins over the past two games. Both times, he stood in the pocket, manipulated the safeties with his eyes (despite knowing where he wanted to throw), and delivered an accurate ball to the open Higgins. The issue right now is that he’ll sandwich a good play like that between a string of high throws, bad reads, and poor pocket presence. We’ve seen both the Good Baker and the Bad Baker. The challenge for Stefanski, Alex Van Pelt, and the rest of the coaches is figuring out how to get Good Baker on a consistent basis, and against quality competition. Mayfield lit up the Colts, who have one of the best defenses in the NFL, before falling off the in second half.

It’s completely fair to wonder if Mayfield is the guy for this Browns team. He’s certainly not provided many reasons to be confident as of late. There is also zero reason to give up on him, or to call for backup Case Keenum to be the new starter. Mayfield will get every opportunity to prove he is a franchise QB, and will have at least through the 2021 season to do that. How he performs in the rest of this season will determine whether or not the Browns exercise his fifth-year option, which would likely pay him over $20 million for the 2022 campaign. That’s a big financial commitment and is just added pressure for Mayfield to perform.

Until proven otherwise, Mayfield is the guy. There is reason to question whether he can validate that, but he should and will be given the chance to do so.