Mayfield’s Problems In ’19 Based In Browns’ Dysfunction?

It is amazing to us that so many people have soured on Browns’ QB Baker Mayfield. At this time last year, he was the toast of the town in Cleveland, setting the record for touchdown passes by a rookie.

He was brash, cocky, and he won games. Cleveland went 6-7 in his starts, and while that’s not even above .500, when the team won a single game in the previous two seasons, you appreciate it.

Many of the fans who now want to replace Mayfield at the position also are highly critical of Freddie Kitchens, which doesn’t make sense to us.

If you think Kitchens was a terrible head coach, then doesn’t it follow he adversely affected the quarterback as well?

We said early in the 2019 campaign that it did not appear the Browns were running the same offense that was so successful in 2018 after Kitchens became the offensive coordinator.

Cleveland ranked 15th in the NFL in rushing attempts during the 2018 season, they ranked 22nd last year. In ’18, the Browns ranked 11th in yards per attempt at 4.6, and last year, they were even better at 4.8, ranking fifth in the NFL.

When Gregg Williams took over for Hue Jackson, and Kitchens inherited the OC job from the dismissed Todd Haley, the Browns became a running team, and they were successful. Mayfield benefited from this and played off the success of the running game.

But when Kitchens took over, and GM John Dorsey hired Todd Monken as offensive coordinator, the Browns got away from what allowed them to win in the second half of the 2018 season.

It didn’t help that Dorsey traded for Odell Beckham Jr. which influenced both the head coach and the OC to emphasize the passing game even more.

When you talk about the dysfunction of the Browns’ franchise, this should be presented as Exhibit A. Stop doing something that worked because the GM wanted to make a big splash, and the head coach and offensive coordinator felt obligated to the GM.

As stated previously, you could see it early in the season last year. Receivers were running downfield patterns with no outlet for Mayfield, and the offensive line wasn’t strong enough to block for those longer routes.

Mayfield ranked 13th in the NFL last year in intended air yards per pass attempt, while Kirk Cousins, running Kevin Stefanski’s offense in Minnesota, ranked 25th.

Although Mayfield ranked 5th in this category in ’18, his completed pass yards per attempt dropped from the year before, and the number of times he was sacked increased from 25 in 2018 (in 14 games) to 40 last season.

To us, it’s because the offensive line couldn’t hold up for the longer routes without the play action. And the play action worked better because the Browns became a running team when Williams and Kitchens took over.

Last season, teams knew Cleveland was going to try to throw first, and run second.

Enter new head coach Kevin Stefanski, and a front office which right now seems like they want to maximize the things this team can do best.

Under Stefanski, Kirk Cousins had his highest passer rating of his career and the lowest interception rate of his career.

He also threw the least passes per game since he became a starter in 2019.

That’s because the Vikings were 4th in rushing attempts (behind Baltimore, San Francisco, and Seattle) and 6th in rushing yards (adding to those teams Dallas and Tennessee).

Coincidentally, the Browns have the second leading rusher in the league in Nick Chubb, and a former NFL rushing champion in Kareem Hunt.

Guess what the Browns are going to do this year?

If Mayfield can’t be at top efficiency this season, then the Browns may need to be on the lookout for a new QB come next year’s draft. It’s all set up for him to succeed.

Fans Should Know It’s Silly Season In The NFL.

The NFL Draft is a little over a week away and therefore, we have entered the silly season.

It’s a period where people will hear a lot of rumors and comments from a team’s executives and those comments could be made just to create a smoke screen for other teams.

It’s probably more subterfuge than there needs to be.

Earlier this week, fans were up in arms when Cleveland GM Andrew Berry said there wasn’t much difference between playing right tackle and left tackle in today’s game.

Was Berry being serious? Was he underestimating the switch in positions? Or was he trying to let other teams know the Browns may not be drafting a left tackle with the 10th overall pick in next week’s draft?

The answer could be one of those choices or none of them. But the other teams in the NFL don’t know that.

Fans of the Browns and all other NFL teams should be ready for a bunch of unfounded information being put out there and much of it would make no sense for the teams involved.

Just yesterday, there was a report out of New York that the Browns are looking at a deal with Minnesota for Odell Beckham Jr. in which Cleveland would get a 2nd round and a 5th round pick in the 2021 draft.

Are the Browns shopping Beckham? Maybe, as we have noted before, his production has slipped over the past few years, but unless he’s a major pain in the rear end in the locker room, it would be odd to think Berry would take that little return for the former All Pro wideout.

There have also been reports that the Bengals are listening to offers for the first overall pick. Of course they are, why wouldn’t they listen. Let’s say Kansas City offers them Patrick Mahomes, do you think they would make that trade? Of course they would.

But KC isn’t making that offer. Still, the Bengals have nothing to lose by listening to the offers, right?

Our guess is the Bengals will indeed take Joe Burrow with the first overall pick, hoping they have their franchise quarterback.

There is probably a grain of truth in any of these rumors. And we are sure there is plenty of talk among the general managers in the NFL going on right now. Groundwork is being laid for possible moves during the draft.

But that doesn’t mean some of the crazy things you will hear in the next eight days are close to becoming reality. It’s posturing.

The personnel people with various teams want certain players they really like to fall to them, so they put out false information hoping to see someone to jump up ahead of them, so the player falls to them.

So what we are saying is just relax when you hear some of the crazy stuff being reported over the next week or so. On the other hand, you are football fans so you probably can’t help yourself.

The people on sports talk radio are happy, that’s for sure.

Browns Changing Their Defensive Personnel. And Why Not?

The Cleveland Browns have made several moves so far this off-season, most of them involving players on the defensive side of the football.

When you look at it, it seems to make sense. Cleveland ranked 21st in the NFL in defense a year ago, and against the run, it was even worse. The Browns were 30th (third worst) in the league in allowing rushing yards.

Why wouldn’t the new front office, led by GM Andrew Berry, want to fix the worst part of the team?

Now, you can argue about how they’ve gone about it, such as letting Joe Schobert, who made two Pro Bowls, walk away in free agency, but our view is let’s wait and see the approach of the personnel department in trying to fix the defense.

Yes, we understand the defense looked much worse last season after Myles Garrett’s suspension, but one player, even a great one like Garrett, shouldn’t impact that side of the football so much.

They need to get better without Garrett so he can get rest during games without the threat of the opposition going 80 yards in four plays with him on the sidelines.

Schobert was a solid linebacker against the pass, but he didn’t make a huge impact in the running game, really no one did. My guess is the front office didn’t want to pay a Lexus price for a Ford player. We will find out if they are right.

It could also be as simple as Schobert not fitting the mold of a middle linebacker that new defensive coordinator Joe Woods wants.

As for Christian Kirksey, his problem was availability is an ability too, and out of 32 games the past two seasons, Kirksey played in nine.

According to reports, the Browns tried to reach an agreement with Kirksey, but he wanted more money than Cleveland thought a man who played in less than 30% of the games over the last two years was worth.

The next order of business for the front office is the fate of Olivier Vernon, who came over in the Odell Beckham Jr. trade with the Giants, and is making big money while missing more games in the last three seasons.

Vernon missed four games in 2018, five games in 2019, and six contests with the Browns in 2019. If he isn’t willing to take a reduction in salary, he likely will end up on the unemployment line.

In addition to linebacker and depth on the defensive line, the Browns also need help at safety.

When Sashi Brown was GM and Berry was part of the front office, the organization looked for young players coming off their rookie contracts in free agency. You would have to assume that will be the philosophy again.

Three of the top NFL free agents (according to The Sporting News) fit that criteria: Kansas City DT Chris Jones (25 years old), pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney (26), and Denver safety Justin Simmons (26). We would all be happy if the Browns signed two of these three players.

The best inside linebacker is the Rams’ Cory Littleton (26). He would seem to be another target for the Browns.

We view the Cleveland Browns as a playoff contender in 2020 and they have plenty of room under the salary cap. It’s time to use it to upgrade the team where it needs help.

The new regime has some work to do starting March 18th.

Odd Reasons To Doubt Mayfield

Cleveland sports fans are sometimes a different breed. Especially when it comes to the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns are quite frankly, one of the worst franchises in professional sports when it comes wins and losses. They haven’t made a playoff appearance since 2002, haven’t won a playoff game since 1994, and have had just two winning seasons since then as well.

We know, if you are reading this, that you know this too, but it is a huge reason for the skepticism and doubt surrounding the franchise.

Why would you trust anyone in Berea, especially after 2019, when it looked like the Browns were poised for a playoff berth after a promising second half in 2018, and a trade for Odell Beckham Jr. signaled the organization was all in.

Unfortunately, a brutal early schedule got the team in a bad direction to start, and Freddie Kitchens didn’t know how to handle the situation.

It seems the current angst among Browns’ fans and media alike is directed toward Baker Mayfield, who you may recall was the toast of the town a year ago at this time.

What is weird is the mixed message you get from the Baker detractors.

For example, if Kitchens was as over his head as everyone believes and there was a conflict between the head coach and offensive coordinator Todd Monken, wouldn’t that be reason enough for the second year QB’s struggles?

There is no question we did not see the Mayfield who set an NFL for most touchdown passes as a rookie in 2019. The only statistic he improved upon last season was yards/completion.

He had a lower completion percentage, more interceptions, lower yards passing per contest, and a lower passer rating than his first season in brown and orange.

We still insist it was a different offensive system than in 2018, and this version did not incorporate what Mayfield does well, which was being very accurate.

Too many times in long yardage situations, there did not appear to be a short route available to the quarterback, so he was forced to either take a sack, or force the ball to a receiver that wasn’t open.

Also, in spite of the Pro Football Focus rankings that had the Browns’ offensive line ranked in the middle of the pack, the eye test says they were a below average group, particularly on the outside.

You could see Mayfield being skittish in the pocket if the receiver didn’t break open right away, worried that he was going to take a hit. He needs more confidence in his linemen, particularly his left and right tackles.

This will be addressed before next training camp begins.

The other weird reaction to Mayfield’s second season as Cleveland’s signal caller are the folks who worshiped former GM John Dorsey.

If Dorsey was the man, don’t you trust the player he picked first overall in 2018? He’s the guy who looked at all the passers picked in the first round and decided the best player was Baker Mayfield.

Keep that thought in mind. Dorsey wasn’t a perfect as many made him to be, but he does have an eye for talent, and he chose Mayfield. Shouldn’t that count for something?

The guess here is the Browns have their quarterback of the future and his name is Baker Mayfield.

He had a large dose of reality in his second season and we think with better guidance provided by Kevin Stefanski and new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, he will look more like the guy who we saw in 2018.

This is a big season for Mayfield. Our guess is he will be ready.

The Beckham Dilemma

Odell Beckham Jr. might be the most talented wide receiver in the NFL. He has speed, tremendous hands, and was the 12th overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.

He has played six years in the league, and in five of them, had over 1000 yards receiving. The only year he didn’t accomplish this milestone was 2017, when he played only four games due to injuries.

He came to the Browns this season in a deal which sent guard Kevin Zeitler, safety Julius Peppers, and a first round draft pick to the New York Giants. Cleveland also received DE Olivier Vernon in the transaction.

Yet, there are plenty of people in Cleveland who wouldn’t mind saying goodbye to the one time All Pro wide out after his first year with the Browns.

Looking at the numbers, there is no question Beckham’s career in on a downward path. He blaming Eli Manning for his declining stats while in New York, but his numbers dropped again playing with Baker Mayfield and the Browns.

His lowest receiving yardage was in 2019 in Cleveland.

After averaging 96 catches and 1374 yards in his first three years in the NFL, the last two complete seasons in the league have yielded an average of 76 receptions and 1044 yards.

That’s quite a drop-off, and you have to wonder did the broken ankle suffered in 2017 with the Giants take that much away from his game?

If so, that’s unfortunate. Since being drafted, only one wide receiver picked that year has caught more passes (Jarvis Landry) and only one has more receiving yards (Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans). That’ the kind of talent we are talking about.

Or is it his dedication to the sport where he gained his fame.

From wearing a watch during the season opener vs. Tennessee, to wearing the wrong visor in a game, to wearing a pair of shoes not permitted by the NFL’s dress code, you have to wonder what Beckham’s primary goal is right now?

And if we were Paul DePodesta, whoever the new GM will be, and Kevin Stefanski, that’s what we need to know.

Does Beckham want to be the best at his position in football, win a Super Bowl, and eventually get a gold jacket, or does he want to be just another famous athlete?

The incident at the National Championship game was just another attempt to make himself the center of attention, which should have gone to the players on LSU’s title team.

If the ankle injury did take its toll on his body, and he can no longer be someone who dominates at the wide receiver spot, then there isn’t much that can be done. The Browns traded a precious first round pick for someone who isn’t even the best wide receiver on the team.

Because right now, that’s Landry, who 83 balls for a career high 1174 yards in 2019.

A dedicated and healthy (and we might say a top fit) Beckham that can catch close to 100 passes in a season can be a huge part of Stefanski’s offense. The player we saw in ’19, who never seemed to be on the same page as the QB, and had to be told where to line up, even in the later stages of the season, well, we don’t know.

That latter guy is more of a distraction than an asset, and if there is one thing the Cleveland Browns don’t need is a player who takes away from the focus of winning football games.

That’s the decision Odell Beckham Jr. needs to make this season, and so does the Browns’ front office.

Is Patience Best Course Of Action For Browns?

The Cleveland Browns had great expectations coming into the 2019 NFL season, and instead they were a huge disappointment, likely finishing the year with a losing record.

Again.

Many folks around northeast Ohio place the blame solely on head coach Freddie Kitchens, demanding his head as soon as the 16th game of the campaign is completed in Cincinnati.

However, it’s not just Kitchens who should be blamed and that’s why we can’t get on board with firing him when the season ends.

This is not to say Kitchens is the next Bill Belichick or John Harbaugh, but rather he should get the opportunity to make changes based on his experience of 2019. Let’s see if he can grow in the position.

We understand everyone’s impatience, but is it worth the risk of starting over…again.

Besides, there are other things we would like to say answered or addressed by the Browns’ front office.

Can John Dorsey change his philosophy of team building? Right now, the Cleveland GM bases everything on talent, and talent alone. He doesn’t seem to worry about character or work ethic.

Sometimes (Kareem Hunt) it works. Other times (Antonio Callaway, Odell Beckham Jr.) it doesn’t.

You have to look beyond the talent. Does the player have a solid work ethic, do they work hard in the off-season, are they a good teammate? Do they want to be great?

Our thought is (and we wrote about this earlier in the season) the Browns need more guys like Nick Chubb and J.C. Tretter, guys who play hard, do their work, and value winning above everything else.

We would like to see two players in particular dedicate their off-season to working toward winning.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Baker Mayfield reached out to say, Drew Brees, a quarterback similar in game and stature, and pick his brain on how to prepare for a season, and how to dedicate yourself to having a successful NFL career.

And what if Beckham, instead of jet setting around the globe, got his body in top condition? After all, he’s battled injuries in each of his last three seasons. We would also like to see him in mini camps, so he can develop chemistry with his quarterback.

We are sure Mayfield and Beckham aren’t the only issues too.

The offensive and defensive coordinators should also be examined.

If Kitchens returns, does his philosophy match Todd Monken’s? We have had the nagging thought all season that the offense run late last season when the Browns were lighting up the scoreboard isn’t the one they ran this season.

Did the defenses adjust, or did the Browns adjust themselves out of success?

Defensively, stopping the running game has to be a priority. The Browns have consistently finished in the bottom half of the NFL in run defense over the past 10 years.

We understand today’s pro football is pass happy, but if you can’t stop the run, it makes it tougher to rush the passer and play press coverage.

Again, the organizations’ philosophy was to pressure the QB, and that’s a sound strategy, but you can’t ignore stopping the ground game either. For the most part, teams that don’t stop the run are bad football teams.

In our opinion, it would be best if everyone took a step back and fix the things that went wrong in 2019, rather than throw it all away and start over in 2020.

The Browns are no longer devoid of talent, but they now need to become a team.

The OBJ Dilemma

You would think the center of the drama world might be in New York City or Hollywood, CA, but they have nothing on what goes on weekly in the Cleveland suburb of Berea, OH, the home of the Cleveland Browns.

Yes, the Browns won Sunday to move their record to 6-7 and keep their flickering playoff hopes alive, but after the contest, all everyone could focus on was the continuing saga of Odell Beckham Jr. and the comments about the medical staff by QB Baker Mayfield.

Beckham seems to love this. There is always some kind of issue swirling around him, whether it be a visor tinted too dark, or what kind of shoes he is wearing, or now, is he injured, and if so, what is the extent of the problem?

The big question is does it affect the rest of the roster?

Look, we don’t want to come off as “get off my lawn” guy. Quite frankly, if Beckham were playing at a level that made him one of the best wide receivers in the NFL he could play barefoot with a crown on his head.

Unfortunately, probably due to the injury, he’s not. He’s not even the best player at his position on the team, that would be Jarvis Landry, who seems likely to set a career high in receiving yards in 2019.

We haven’t forgotten the rumor about him telling Browns’ opponents to come after him in the off-season either. We hope that’s all it is, a rumor. Because there is no way GM John Dorsey is going to recoup what he spent on Beckham during the off-season.

We could argue the organization has bent over backwards to make OBJ happy, from changing an offense that worked in the second half last season, to Mayfield trying his best to make him part of that offense. And we definitely feel the quarterback is forcing the ball to him.

There is no question Beckham is gifted. He has the talent to be the best in the sport, and a bust in Canton to go along with it. We question whether or not that’s what he wants.

As former Cavalier Jarrett Jack once said, some players love the game, others love the lifestyle. Which is Beckham?

This isn’t to say Beckham is a bad teammate. He’s a willing downfield blocker on running plays, and hasn’t complained about his role until the comments came out this past weekend. His average yards per game is at a career low.

Again, that could be due to the injury.

His teammates like him as well, much like they did in New York.

If Beckham wants to be here in 2020, we would like to see a renewed emphasis on football. That means more appearances at the off-season programs, not all of them, but enough build a rapport with Mayfield.

It also means running routes with more precision, something his QB prefers to a free lance approach.

We’d also like him to take more of a leadership role, although that may not be in his makeup.

If he can’t or won’t do that, maybe it is better for the Browns to move on from this noble experiment. It was noted earlier in the year that perhaps it was too soon for the Browns to take on a player like Odell Beckham Jr.

We believe you need to have a culture of winning in place before taking on a “diva wide receiver”. That’s something Cleveland is still working on.

Browns Don’t Have Enough Talent, Stop Saying They Do.

All year long, we have been reading about all the talent the Cleveland Browns have.

The Browns have so much talent, they will certainly make the playoffs in 2019. That was an opinion shared by a lot of experts, both nationally and locally.

The fact is although Cleveland has a lot of talent in some areas, they don’t have enough throughout the roster. And that’s a big reason why Freddie Kitchens’ team sits at 5-7 with four games remaining.

GM John Dorsey bears the blame for this. Dorsey put together a roster with a lot of style, but no substance.

Yes, the Browns have great skill players on offense with Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Odell Beckham Jr., and Jarvis Landry. However, their offensive line hasn’t allowed that talent to show through.

Sunday, the Steelers defensive line couldn’t be blocked well enough for Baker Mayfield to use those weapons, particularly his receivers. He simply didn’t have time enough for anything to develop.

Defensively, Dorsey emphasized the front four and the secondary, which is a good place to start in today’s NFL. Rush the passer and cover the wideouts. It’s sound strategy, and they spent a lot of money on it.

Unfortunately, the Browns, as has been the case for most of the last 20 years, can’t stop the run, ranking 7th from the bottom in the league this season. If you can run the ball effectively, it negates a pass rush and puts the entire defense back on their heels.

It’s funny that Dorsey, who seemed to be all over the television, radio and print media when the Browns were the talk to the town in the second half of last season, winning five of their last seven, has vanished this season.

When is the last time he’s been seen on camera?

Shouldn’t he be held accountable for the losing record to date, at least as much as the coach? After all, he’s the architect.

It’s a lot different to take over a team that has won one game over a two year period, and put them on the road to being an average NFL squad. There was nowhere to go but up.

Taking that same team from a 7-8-1 record to a playoff berth is a tougher job.

Dorsey added a lot of shiny trinkets, like Beckham, last spring and summer, but he forgot that football is still a game won in the trenches. We are confident he knows better, because we helped build the Chiefs current roster.

This isn’t to say Dorsey should be fired after the season. You can’t keep having knee-jerk reactions every time someone tries something and it doesn’t work out.

However, we are tired of hearing about all of the talent on the roster. There is in some areas, but in other areas (offensive line, safety) it is lacking, and it needs to be addressed.

Football is a sport that is very symbiotic. All areas have to work in concert with each other. You have Odell Beckham Jr. but he can’t stand out because you don’t have a QB with a strong arm (Eli Manning), or you don’t have good enough protection (Mayfield).

Either way, it’s a waste to have him on your roster because you cannot maximize his talents, unless you have an offensive coordinator who is open to try different things.

We aren’t sure the Browns have that either.

John Dorsey has to take care of these weaknesses before the 2020 season, or he and Kitchens will be on a very hot seat. The Browns ownership has never been known for their patience.

Can the Browns take a leap into contention next season? Absolutely. But you have to have talent spread out throughout the roster, not concentrated in a few areas.

Kitchens Starts Instilling Discipline On Browns

One thing about doing something for the first time is you plan it out in your head, but sometimes the results don’t turn out the way you envisioned.

We believe this is what happened to Browns’ coach Freddie Kitchens.

When the long time assistant got his first head coaching job, he probably figured he’d be like the young college graduate who gets his first teaching job. He’ll be the cool new guy, allowing the students freedom of choice in terms of doing their homework, taking tests, classroom behavior, etc.

Sometimes, the students (depending on where you teach) have enough self discipline to handle this. They understand their job to get their assignments done, and they want to please the cool new teacher. They want him to be their friend and their teacher.

Other times, the students take advantage of the laissez faire attitude of the head of the class, and then the teacher has a choice. Does he continue with his original plan, and get run over by his classroom, or does he put his foot down.

Kitchens got the head coaching gig in Cleveland because of his relationship with quarterback Baker Mayfield and the way the Browns’ offense performed in the second half of last year.

He figured he could lead the entire team the way he related to Mayfield, and everything we be fine.

Unfortunately, not all players have the internal drive to succeed that Mayfield has, so when Kitchens gave them freedom, and the Browns started 2-6, and did so while committing stupid penalties, and doing questionable things like wearing very expensive watches during games, and taking unnecessary risks with the football.

After the New England game, Kitchens had enough. Three early turnovers took his team out of the contest early, and after the game, he said things had to change. The penalties and turnovers had to end.

The penalties stopped against Denver the following week, but the Browns lost anyway, falling to 2-6 despite the Broncos playing a QB that hadn’t taken a meaningful snap in years.

In that game, Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. wore cleats in violation of NFL league rules. Kitchens claimed he didn’t notice, but we guess he did and wasn’t happy.

Before the next home game, WR Antonio Callaway showed up late. Kitchens told him he would not dress. A few days later, it was revealed Callaway failed another drug test, and was released.

Then, news came out yesterday that S Damarious Randall missed a practice, and so the coaching staff left him in Cleveland for today’s game.

Fans were upset by this news, but they were the same folks who complained about the lack of a firm hand by the coach. You can’t have it both ways.

Whether this change came from on top or it was Freddie Kitchens realizing being a “players’ coach” wasn’t working, we agree that it was needed.

And kudos to the staff and/or organization for figuring out that the original plan wasn’t working.

Being a leader involves making some tough decisions, and Kitchens figured it out. That’s why unless there is a total collapse by the team, we think Freddie Kitchens will be on the sidelines when the Browns open the 2020 season.

It took a little while, but the toughness we thought we would be getting from Kitchens finally appeared.

Browns Need To Eliminate Distractions

At 2-6, the Cleveland Browns need to pull in the reins a bit on the free speech that goes on in Berea.

Freddie Kitchens needs to send a message to his team. It doesn’t have to be given harshly and it doesn’t have to be given through the media, but he needs to make sure every single player on the roster has one thing in mind: Winning!

Let’s stop discussions about getting the ball to Odell Beckham Jr., and what shoes he is wearing and getting fined by the wardrobe police.

No more talk about Baker Mayfield’s facial hair and how many times per day he shaves.

Can the discussions about who is calling the plays and who will call the plays going forward.

Kitchens likes to say if you don’t wear orange and brown, you don’t matter. Well, you know what else doesn’t matter? Any of this crap.

Someone needs to step up and tell everyone not to feed into the media’s obsession with some of this stuff.

When Beckham speaks during the week and is asked about his targets? He should reply with touches don’t matter unless a victory comes with it. The same for Jarvis Landry.

Mayfield needs to have the same mantra. Tell the reporters that he doesn’t care if he throws five passes in the game as long as they win.

And any questions about anything else should be met with the response of “I’m here to talk about football”.

We have a new appreciation for Bill Belichick and his “we’re on the Cincinnati” speak. There is too much talking about the previous week and other topics that have nothing to do with winning.

Notice the media doesn’t talk to Nick Chubb a lot, and the running back is probably the best player on the offensive side of the ball.

Why don’t they talk to him? Because he doesn’t say anything.

We think about the movie Bull Durham when Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) talks to Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) about his fungused shower shoes. Davis tells him when you have shoes like that and win 20 games in the major leagues you are colorful. In the minors, it’s just gross.

If the Browns were 6-2 right now, Mayfield’s facial hair would be fun, Beckham’s uniform violations would be rebellious, and no one would be questioning who should be calling the plays.

But they are 2-6, so maybe, just maybe it’s time for everyone to just shut up, play football, and win some games.

When John Dorsey took over as GM, one thing he wanted to do was keep things in house, meaning no more leaks to the national media. Kitchens should do the same with the locker room.

With the record they have, the Browns need to get back to basics. Think about how many exotic fakes and motion packages they used last week in Denver.

Defensively, they seemed unwilling to blitz at QB playing in his first NFL game.

We have said in the past that sometimes the obvious thing to do is also the right thing to do.

For the Cleveland Browns, everybody should be on the same page and they clearly are not. Winning cures a lot of evils. That’s what every single person in the Browns’ organization should be focusing on from here on out.