5 Things The Browns Must Do To Ensure Baker Mayfield Succeeds
Baker Mayfield was a controversial choice for the top pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, and now the Cleveland Browns have the task of ensuring he was worth the selection.
Mayfield was a fantastic college quarterback but there are some glaring holes in his game that must be addressed one way or another. What follows are five steps the Browns must take to assist his development.
Open up the offense
New offensive coordinator Todd Haley and head coach Hue Jackson are going to have a different player under center than either have ever employed. Mayfield thrived in Lincoln Riley’s Air Raid system at Oklahoma, which is nothing like the offenses Haley and Jackson have run. They’re going to need to change things up to fit with their new quarterback.
Haley and Jackson have employed similar philosophies, with a reliance on beating single coverage to the outside and throwing over the top to soften up defenses. That can’t be what they expect from Mayfield. While he has a solid arm, it’s not a cannon.
People often compare Mayfield to fellow diminutive quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Drew Brees, and neither one of those is accurate. Wilson ran a 4.55 40 at the combine in 2012, and Mayfield ran a 4.84. He’s not even close to the same kind of athlete Wilson is. His scrambling and speed worked in college, but it won’t in the NFL. And Mayfield doesn’t have the arm Brees or Wilson has. He’s easily a notch below them. That’s not a knock on his throwing ability, but the other guys have superior arm talent.
The two veteran offensive minds will have to be willing to spread things out to take advantage of Mayfield’s strengths. He thrives when the field is spread and throwing lanes are open. His accuracy (70.9 percent as a junior, 70.5 percent as a senior) largely relied on spread formations where he could rely on his superior wideouts beating single coverage, or using his intelligence to find his targets beating zones. He was also so successful in Riley’s offense because he routinely had receivers matched up on linebackers and safeties. Which meant he typically had them running wide open.
Two tight end sets aren’t going to help him. The Air Raid relies almost exclusively on four-wide sets, which can’t be the norm in the NFL. But going three-wide, with a single running back and David Njoku at tight end might work. They could also split Njoku off the line as well.
If they want Mayfield to feel comfortable immediately, Haley and Jackson are going to have to be creative. He’s going to have to be out of the shotgun a lot — he was exclusively a shotgun quarterback in college — and he’ll need multiple targets spreading the field. This isn’t a guy who is going to step in and thrive in a conventional NFL offense.
There’s a reason Air Raid quarterbacks struggle in the NFL, and it’s because NFL coaches don’t adjust for them.
Play with tempo
Anyone who watched Mayfield in college knows that when he got rolling he was nearly impossible to stop. Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley obviously caught on to that because he often employed an up-tempo attack whenever his quarterback was struggling or in a rut. Virtually every time, Mayfield played better.
Oklahoma didn’t huddle, which is a hallmark of the Air Raid system. While Riley claims Mayfield had more control over the offense than most Air Raid quarterbacks, he was still getting plays from the sideline and not huddling up. That can make for an awkward transition to the NFL.
To combat that, the Browns should be prepared to go no-huddle for stretches of games, while also using tempo. Basically it would be like running a two-minute offense all the time. Mayfield is a guy who thrives when he’s got a hot hand, and moving the ball up the field while getting in and out of plays is the perfect way to get him locked in.
If you have a quarterback who was wildly successful doing things one way in college, why try to change him? Adapt the system to fit him. The Browns drafted Mayfield with the No. 1 pick because they liked what he can do on the field. Why try to make him play a different way?
Emphasize quick passes
As noted above, Mayfield doesn’t have a huge arm. Yes, he can make all the throws, but he’s not going to be heaving the thing 40 yards on a rope regularly. He is, however, supremely accurate. So the Browns have to work with that.
Mayfield also had a tendency to hang on to the ball too long in college, which led to him taking sacks. It’s a good trait that he would be looking down field when things broke down, but sometimes you just need to throw the ball away and move on to the next down. A way to combat that would be to emphasize quick passes, at least until the pocket clock in his head catches up with the NFL.
Spreading defenses out and emphasizing quick-hitting pass plays is the way to maximize what Mayfield can do. Guys like Josh Gordon and Corey Coleman are athletic enough to make plays after the catch, and free agent acquisition Jarvis Landry is one of the league’s more consistent possession receivers.
So, you’ve got the perimeter guys to make plays after the catch, have Mayfield get them the ball quickly and let them go to work. The San Francisco 49ers did this with Steve Young in the early 90s and absolutely destroyed opposing defenses. Employing quick slants, shallow crosses, three-step drops, stacked formations, bunch routes and quick option routes, they would hit several passes underneath, bring the defense up, then go over the top.
Mayfield has a better arm than Young did, but adding in some West Coast offensive principles while spreading things out a bit would help him tremendously.
Run the football
This could go for any young quarterback in the NFL, but running the ball is even more important with Mayfield. The Browns drafted Nick Chubb and signed Carlos Hyde in the offseason. With Duke Johnson already on the roster, that’s a pretty nice running back trio.
Establishing the run is the perfect way to protect a young quarterback. With J.C. Tretter, Joel Bitonio and Kevin Zeitler on the interior of the offensive line, the Browns should be able to run the football. It’s still unclear if second-round pick Austin Corbett will play guard or tackle (I’m assuming he’ll get a crack at tackle), but he’s another solid run blocker.
While Mayfield scrambled a lot at Oklahoma, that’s not going to fly at the next level. He’s good at moving around in the pocket, but he’s simply not fast enough to run away from NFL defenders. As mentioned earlier, he also has a tendency to hold the ball too long and take sacks. The best way to combat a pass rush is to run the football consistently. That should be the goal in Cleveland.
Employ strict conduct rules
Much has been made of Mayfield’s immaturity in college. He was caught on camera being tackled by cops and arrested, he planted a flag on Ohio State’s logo and he was caught on camera making obscene gestures at Kansas’ players. He was a college kid doing stupid stuff and we should probably pump the breaks on blasting his character too much.
That said, the Cleveland Browns must — and I’m emphasizing this — must set clear ground rules for him immediately. Call them “The Baker Rules” and enforce them strictly.
If Mayfield flips off an opponent’s sideline? The team should suspend him. If the grabs his crotch on the field? They should suspend him. If he’s caught jaw-jacking with an opponent during his rookie season? The team should suspend him. I don’t care who started it, or what they did to Mayfield, he needs strict structure in place immediately so he doesn’t drift off the rails.
Additionally, if anything surfaces about him going to clubs, drinking or displaying ridiculous behavior in public during the season, he should face strict penalties.
The memory of Johnny Manziel’s disastrous tenure in Cleveland is far too fresh for that kind of stuff to happen again. And, frankly, while Manziel was acting out as a member of the Browns, the organization was far too lenient on him.
Mayfield should be smart enough to understand that and should accept whatever restrictions are placed on him as a rookie. Manziel is a cautionary tale for all young quarterbacks, and there are legitimate concerns about Mayfield’s off-field maturity.