I kind of want to see his lifelong friend / backup QB get the start next week.
The team is rotten from the top down. To paraphrase from a WaPo opinion piece, Dan Snyder is an average man, and a small man. He’s so small that he won’t surround himself with anyone who’s smarter than he is, and he is an average man who got lucky financially, so he will never do what everyone knows he should do, which is bring in actual football people who will tell him to fuck off and let them do their job. I think Marty Schottenheimer was turning this team around but he got fired because he wouldn’t be Snyder’s “Yes Man.” Anyone who comes in to coach this team is going to be similarly handcuffed by total top-down organizational incompetence.
That should be the progression of rookie QB’s, shouldn’t it? First year, they’re not ready for a grownup NFL offense, so you call plays with those quick release/close to the line of scrimmage/no reads throws. It helps them develop timing and rhythm while they learn about progressions, route combos, and reading defenses (stuff they generally don’t have to do in college). Then, as the player develops, they expand the playbook; calling more plays that require more NFL QB skills. Then, if things go well, you have a real NFL QB.
Some players develop well (Pat Mahomes. Carson Wentz). Some develop more slowly (Newton. Winston. Carr), and some never do (Tebow. Manziel.)
From your description, it sounds like the Browns are trying to get Mayfield up to speed with a real NFL offense, and he’s struggling with it game to game. That’s to be expected from a young QB (if that’s what’s really going on). The OC can help out by better blending the transition, or even go back to the simplistic offense (the Bears seem to be doing that with Trubisky) and try to develop the QB from there.
I think it will come down to whether Mayfield wants to, and can, develop. Some guys have no interest in developing beyond what they think works well for them (RGIII, Manziel). Some do, but their level tops out (Dalton. Carr.). And some become spectacular (Mahomes). We will see where in that spectrum Mayfield falls.
It’s hard to know what the playcall is entirely just from watching on TV, without even having an all 22 camera. But the impression I get is that what we’re running now is not too much of a “real NFL offense” in the way that you mean it. A real NFL offense will typically incorporate quick hitting reads and slow developing reads on the same play - your first read probably occurs somewhere around 0.5 to 1 second in the play, and if it’s there, you hit it, if not, the next read at the 1-1.5 second mark will develop, and you try to hit that, etc.
The offense the Browns are running doesn’t seem to have a read intended be hit on a lot of plays until the 3+ second mark, which is unusual, and feels more like a 1970s offense to me. Now maybe those reads are there and the TV isn’t showing them well and Baker just isn’t hitting them, but this is the impression I’m getting. Everything is too slow developing, the reads start late, the O-line is too poor at blocking, Mayfield is forced to take off running before the first read is even there, and he’s not doing a great job of pocket awareness.
Different OCs also have different methods of making reads and there are other aspects of play designs and the way you mentally go through a play that can be ill-suited to a style of play from a QB, but that’s hard to see just from watching TV broadcasts.
Last year wasn’t a fluke. He was smooth, confident, in control, running an offense that he’s comfortable with, and that’s changed completely. I don’t think he suddenly lost the ability to play or displayed all the skills he had last year, and I don’t think it’s simply a matter of the defenses doing a better job against him - it looks, to me, like the offensive system is fundamentally different and not suited to his strengths, and not suited to the team’s strengths and weaknesses either.
Must I be the first person here to say that MAH COLTS beat the previously-undefeated Chiefs? GO COLTS!
AJ Green to the Patriots is a real rumor going around…