Just relax, Baker Mayfield, OBJ chemistry problems will be fixed

Just relax, the so-called chemistry problems between Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham, Jr. are going to be fixed.

The Cleveland Browns are going to get Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham, Jr. on the same page very soon, so everybody just relax, with apologies to Aaron Rodgers for copping his sound bite.

Looking at the numbers, it’s apparent that there were real breakdowns, but on the other hand, the Browns offense scored 42 points last week, so we can quit calling for the coach to step down or turn the play-calling duties over to offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, though he would do a fine job if asked. Folks, we are not pushing the panic button after scoring 42 points versus a playoff team. Just stop it.

Here’s a review of what the numbers say. Much of this is familiar territory, as this fan and many others have pointed this out. Versus Chicago, Mayfield over-targeted Beckham in his first game back.

OBJ was targeted nine times, while all other wide receivers combined were target only five times. That’s obviously lopsided and means that they were trying too hard to get OBJ the ball. The numbers don’t say whether it was the play design by Van Pelt, the play calling by Stefanski, or the execution by Mayfield, but the trend is clear and unambiguous.

So they may have looked at the stat sheet after the game and said, “gee that was out of whack. Let’s fix that for Minnesota.” And they did. Versus Minnesota, they got Rashard Higgins and OBJ equally involved in targets.

However, Mayfield was having a terrible game in general, possibly due to not being used to throwing with a protective brace for his injured left shoulder, and he specifically overthrew OBJ consistently. According to Pro Football Focus, the average targeting depth to OBJ was 22.9 yards, suggesting that Mayfield was too intent on throwing the deep ball to his star receiver.

So, they tried to fix that against the Los Angeles Chargers by making sure to throw some short passes to Beckham early. That worked, although he bobbled one that he should have easily caught.

They also remembered to get Donovan Peoples-Jones involved in the passing game and were rewarded for that. However, late in the fourth quarter, they shied away from using Beckham, when maintaining possession could have sealed a victory. Did the early drop spook Mayfield for the entire game? They’re going to look at the game film and realize that OBJ was open and a better option than Rashard Higgins late in the game.

So in essence they went from too much OBJ to not enough OBJ. The Goldilocks theory says that they should be close to figuring out what is just the right amount of OBJ.

It is going to work, be patient. This is an All-Pro wide receiver with a very good quarterback. Up to this point, they have been still learning how to play in the Stefanski offense together. However, by now they have had 172  game snaps together.

By now they should be pretty much getting it figured out. The gross errors should be weeded out of the game plan, play-calling, and execution phases and we should see the results on the playing field very soon.

The Browns are playing a team that is 5-0, so it is not going to be easy. Plus, the coach is Kliff Kingsbury, who done our quarterback wrong in college, sending him packing in favor of Patrick Mahomes. No disgrace, that, but in Mayfield’s mind, it is unforgivable.

This is going to be a very intense game. With Nick Chubb out and Kareem Hunt possibly not at 100 percent, we may finally see the aerial bombardment that fans of the passing game have wanted.