by Seth Wenig/Associated Press
The Cleveland Browns have finally escaped the Dark Ages and entered the Enlightenment with quarterback Baker Mayfield leading the way.
In the NFL, life without a quarterback is like dealing with the plague as a slow death becomes reality. Everything festers and spoils while flashes of hope are quickly extinguished.
The Browns endured a miserable stretch nearly unmatched for any professional franchise.
But now they have Mayfield, an elite distributor aligned with Coach of the Year candidate Kevin Stefanski, who plays to the young signal-caller’s strengths.
After having the team stripped from the city only to have it come back and fail time after time after time with more regimes than a person can count on both hands and a string of quarterbacks so bad the failures became infamous and subject to public ridicule, the Browns finally found the right combination to become a successful team on the field with some staying power.
The process began two years ago when the franchise invested the No. 1 overall pick in Mayfield, who was the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Early returns showed plenty of promise. After usurping the starting position from an injured Tyrod Taylor, Mayfield went on to set a rookie record with 27 touchdown passes (which the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert matched this season). The Oklahoma product could have easily been named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, but the award eventually went to New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley.
Then, everything fell apart and Mayfield’s viability as the franchise’s long-term starter came under fire.
After dealing with a midseason Hue Jackson firing, Freddie Kitchens took over playcalling duties that eventually led to the former position coaching taking over as the head man in charge last fall. But the organization lacked alignment and heavy expectations crushed the team during a disappointing 6-10 campaign.
Ben Margot/Associated Press
Mayfield regressed. Former Browns quarterback Drew Stanton explained to the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot how the team failed its quarterback.
“[Former offensive coordinator Todd Monken] gets such a bad rap, which isnt fair. Looking back, he was just trying to do the best he could with the information he had. He was trying to implement some of his offense and then we also had [offensive line coach and former Green Bay teammate of previous general manager John Dorseys] James Campen, who came in and he was doing a lot of the run game stuff, along with the protections.
Then, Freddie was trying to do things that he was familiar with, the Bruce Arians downfield offense, and stuff he knows that Bakers comfortable with, so there was just wasnt any continuity. You try to get everybody on the same page in a short amount of time, and sometimes it just doesnt work out.’
Context is necessary because quarterbacks often take the brunt of the blame even when they’re not at fault.
Some of the bad habits Mayfield developed carried into the early portions of the 2020 campaign. He looked jittery in the pocket, struggled with pressure, locked onto receivers instead of working through his progression and didn’t play with the looseness once seen during his time in Norman, Oklahoma.
But his confidence grew in Stefanski’s system with each passing week. Players around him, like wide receiver Jarvis Landry and running back Nick Chubb, started to get healthy. The playcalling devised multiple options that catered to Mayfield’s skill set.
In essence, a system quarterback emerged. What too many see as a negative is exactly what good coaching is supposed to achieve. The great staffs look at the talent available to them and adjust. Stefanski brought in a complicated system that dates back nearly three decades Mayfield didn’t have any experience orchestrating. To make matters worse, no team had much of an offseason to speak of and had to absorb its new approach through Zoom meetings instead of reps on the field.
Incremental growth is exactly what everyone should expect in this scenario and Mayfield provided it in spades. The burgeoning star methodically and systematically picked the Giants defense apart Sunday during Cleveland’s impressive 20-6 victory as the Browns improved to 10-4 overall.
The third-year quarterback completed 27 of 32 passes for 297 yards and two touchdowns. Mayfield’s 84.3 completion percentage broke a Browns franchise record once held by Kelly Holcomb, per ESPN Stats & Info (via ESPN’s Jake Trotter).
New York entered the contest with the game’s ninth-best defense. Two weeks earlier, the same unit held the Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson in check. Yet, Mayfield sliced and diced Sunday’s opposition.
“I thought Baker was outstanding tonight. He was dialed in,” Stefanski told reporters after the contest.
Seth Wenig/Associated Press
He’s been dialed in since Week 7.
Granted, cornerback James Bradberry wasn’t available due to COVID-19 restrictions. Still, the quarterback’s performance is now a trend, not an anomaly.
Over the last three contests, Mayfield threw for 974 yards and eight touchdowns compared to only one interception. He leads the NFL with seven touchdowns over 10 or more air yards over the last four weeks, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
These latest numbers only add to what Mayfield recently accomplished.
Not including Sunday’s performance, Mayfield held the fourth-highest QBR in the league since Week 7 behind Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady, per Trotter. Pretty good company. He’s been the NFL’s best quarterback this season in the fourth quarter and overtime, per Pro Football Focus. Bonus, he’s yet to throw an interception in the red zone, according to PFF Fantasy.
While those numbers are fantastic across the board, the growth Mayfield displayed recently really elevates his status among the league’s best.
For example, the former top pick struggled against pressure packages for most of this season. He is at his best when working from a clean pocket. The Giants, meanwhile, feature one of the game’s best defensive fronts. What looked like a potential mismatch on paper turned into another checkmark in Mayfield’s favor.
As Trotter noted, Mayfield provided a career-best by going 12-of-13 passing at 10.5 yards per attempt against the Giants’ blitz packages.
Furthermore, Sunday’s team captain displayed excellent eye discipline when that wasn’t the case just a couple of weeks ago. During Cleveland’s Week 12 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mayfield provided one of the worst throws of the entire season by any quarterback when he missed a wide-open Rashard Higgins in the end zone. The throw wasn’t necessarily the issue. Mayfield became locked onto the wrong target within the route combination and was too slow to put himself in the right position and deliver a catchable pass.
Fast forward three weeks in a similar situation for Cleveland’s first score against the Giants.
NFL@NFLMayfield finds Hooper. #Browns take the lead!
: #CLEvsNYG on NBC
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Mayfield quickly glanced to his right after the snap where tight end Harrison Bryant worked to the flat. The quarterback recognized two defenders in the area as opposed to a singular target. He quickly snapped his head back to the backside of the play where fellow tight end Austin Hooper stood wide open for the touchdown grab.
Patience isn’t a virtue in today’s NFL. Players like Mahomes and Lamar Jackson ruined the curve by winning MVPs in their second seasons. Not everyone is as physically gifted or placed in ideal situations. Some have to struggle before finding their way.
The Browns now have the right coach utilizing the right system for the right quarterback, which allows Mayfield to realize his full potential.
“I said ‘Baker Mayfield is your franchise quarterback and you need to fully commit to him,'” Stanton told owner Jimmy Haslam in the veteran’s exit interview last year. “You’ve got to find out what you’ve got. You drafted this kid first overall and it’s well documented the number of quarterbacks that have come through there and started games for the Cleveland Browns.”
Well, Haslam and everyone else now knows what the Browns have in Mayfield: a true franchise quarterback.
Brent Sobleski covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @brentsobleski.
