Browns: Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham cooking up recipe for success this season

Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham, Jr. have not found that perfect rhythm yet, but they’re working to make sure that happens in 2021

Aren’t you just a bit more curious and pumped to see what Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. can do together this season?

After two years, of some less than stellar production between these two powerful personalities that spark controversy almost every day in the frenzy of the sports and life crosswinds, I expect both to provide a season of spectacular throws and one-handed catches, tiptoeing the sidelines, and lead the Browns to a new level of success not seen in these parts in 30 years.

I was reminded recently, when I saw media footage of the two megastars working together during a recent ball practice, that these guys are really good football players and were working together as you’d see on any high school practice field. The time and commitment that you see between these two has me salivating at the possibilities for this team as they get ready for the start of the regular season.

Considering that Beckham is coming back from major knee surgery back in October of 2020, what we are watching from Beckham, in his preparations for the start of the season, is very impressive. Mayfield too has gotten himself in really good physical shape and looking quicker and more fluid in his game.

All in all, I expect some impressive work from these two. That connection between the two and being on the same page seems to be occurring right before our eyes.

I give credit to the Browns coaching staff and their head coach Kevin Stefanski, who has helped create this new way of the players looking at the game and having them buying into the idea that it takes everyone and that focus to detail and trying to improve on a personal level. That is very evident in what we are seeing from Beckham and Mayfield during this training camp.

Here are three areas that I see as reasons why Mayfield and Beckham are set to have a breakout season.

Baker Mayfield, OBJ Improvement: Communication

You and I both know that when you’re not communicating, in whatever capacity, there will be breakdowns in trust and good production. That first year that Beckham joined the team, there wasn’t a good leader of the team in place.

Former Browns coach Freddie Kitchens did some good things with the team but his strong suit wasn’t reflecting onto his team the tools to work together. Once Cleveland’s season started going south in 2019, many of the players, like Beckham and Mayfield, would regularly seem disgruntled and would rather point the finger at one another.

Bringing Stefanski here was a lifesaver. But even at that, the Mayfield and Beckham connection was still struggling to get off the ground. Many have noted that Mayfield was too insistent on trying to force the ball Beckham’s direction early last season before Beckham went down with that bad knee injury.

I’d agree that it did seem like Mayfield’s forcing the issue was pretty evident and that after Beckham went down things for Mayfield seemed to change. Maybe because he knew he didn’t have a superstar wide receiver demanding his attention, consciously or not, things generally statistically took off for him.

After the season ended in Kansas City, whereby the luck of the NFL scheduling Gods it begins again for the Browns this season, Mayfield and Beckham have made a commitment to work out together along with their other teammates even prior to the regular training camp.

That public showing of their working together is obviously some for show and bringing us to this conversation, but what’s not caught on tape is what has me excited, because I truly believe these two leaders on the team are trying their hardest to reach a new level of success for themselves but more importantly for their team.

Baker Mayfield, OBJ Improvement: Experts in their craft

Both Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham are veterans and are entering an important time in their respective careers.

Beckham has been in the league since 2014 and this will be his eighth year in the NFL. His first three years as a New York Giant put him on the map of stardom. He had over 1,300 yards receiving those first three seasons and accumulated 35 touchdowns.

Since then, though his stats have shrunk considerably especially in the touchdowns caught. In those last two seasons with the Giants, he only registered three scores in 2017 and six touchdowns in 2018.

Though the numbers have dwindled of late, I still expect more from Beckham this season. His recovery from his major knee injury is a cause for concern, but he seems by all accounts moving and playing at a higher energy level than in recent years.

If you were Beckham and you were looking back at your career, wouldn’t you be wanting to reverse course and prove to the world that you weren’t getting worse? More importantly, I’m positive that Beckham is focused on improvements for himself too which is the “driving force” for most talented athletes.

You add into the mix Mayfield’s improving numbers, as last season was an early sign of great things to come this next season, then you’ve got a recipe for success. Last year, Mayfield finished with 26 touchdowns and only eight interceptions thrown. Seven of those interceptions happened in the first seven games of the season. He’s averaged above 3,500 yards thrown each of his first three years.

He ended up having 10 games, including the playoff win against the Pittsburgh Steelers where he threw multiple touchdown games. He threw three touchdowns in that playoff game win and also had five touchdowns thrown game against the Cincinnati Bengals, ironically in the game Beckham was injured last October.

Baker Mayfield, OBJ Improvement: Motivation

Motivation can be a very powerful thing. Beckham’s rehab from his injury has been nothing short of a miracle.

You add in all the doubters from a season ago, that conveniently don’t remember what Beckham did in the early stages of the season, where he provided that spark in games that helped them win games.

Example A would be the early win at home against the Cincinnati Bengals where he extended the field and caught a beautiful touchdown pass from Mayfield. Example B would be the extraordinary run he made late, dancing down the Dallas Cowboys sideline to a touchdown to preserve a Browns victory.

All these motivating factors can spark Beckham this season. And that’s pretty scary to consider the outcome.

Then you have Mayfield, who continues to improve and get better in all parts of his game. I always feel like the goalposts continue to be moved further and further down the field when some evaluate Mayfield’s production and importance to this Browns team. It really is fascinating, from my perspective, how the expectations always change from those that regularly question Mayfield’s abilities and talents.

First, he was too short to play quarterback, then it was that he couldn’t be consistent and made too many mistakes and now it’s that he really isn’t a top 10 or elite quarterback.

If I’m Mayfield, it wouldn’t take much to be motivated by all the doubters. The Browns went 11-5 a year ago, with Mayfield showing consistency we haven’t seen from a Browns quarterback in decades. The last season the Browns went 11-5 was in 1994.

I suspect that Mayfield will have a career year and set new highs in touchdowns thrown and yards thrown. That chip on Mayfield’s shoulder is always there and that’s fine by me. He makes this team better and that’s all you can ask for as a fan.

Can he deliver a Super Bowl victory to the city of Cleveland? If you don’t think that that motivating factor isn’t of the highest importance to him then I don’t know what you are watching or expecting.

If Mayfield and Beckham can’t deliver on that goal of a Super Bowl then those doubters will continue their unforgiving taunting of these two stars, but if they do deliver then those doubters might just attempt to change their tune.

My guess is that they’ll keep moving those goalposts. But Beckham and Mayfield are used to it and it won’t stop them from striving for greatness.