Cleveland Browns: What could Baker Mayfield’s stat line look like at the end of the season?

Completion Percentage

"2018: 63.8% 2019: 59.4% 2020: 61.2% 2020 (projected): 61.2%"

Baker Mayfield’s completion percentage has risen compared to last season, which is a great sign of his progression. He has been efficient with his smaller workload and that is a big part of why the Cleveland Browns are 8-3. However, there is some serious cause for concern in his completion percentage.

First off, 61.2 percent is decent but isn’t good enough to be a starting quarterback on a successful team in today’s NFL. In comparison, in Kirk Cousins’ one year with Kevin Stefanski as his offensive coordinator, his completion percentage was 69.1 and he had a very similar workload to Mayfield.

Second, in Baker Mayfield’s three games this season where he had more than 30 passing attempts, his completion percentage drops to an abysmal 57.5 percent. That is not going to cut it if the Browns want to compete for the playoffs year in and year out.

Eventually, teams are going to catch on to the gameplan the Ravens and the Steelers had against this Browns offense earlier in the year. If teams stack the box against the Browns, then the running game will be slowed down. Then, the team will have to rely on Baker to throw more passes.

The counter to that would be disguising the coverages, as Baker has struggled to read disguised coverages this season. It’s a risky thing to do, as you could have miscommunication in your secondary when doing this, but it worked for the two of the three teams that beat the Browns this season.