The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Stefanski, Mayfield defend Beckham
Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield and head coach Kevin Stefanski lock step on Odell Beckham Jr.
Baker Mayfield had the best season so far in his young career the year before the Browns traded for Odell Beckham Jr. He had the most productive game of his career after Beckham was injured early Oct. 25 in Cincinnati.
Conclusion: The Browns offense will be better going forward in 2020 because now Mayfield won’t have to force the ball to Beckham, starting Nov. 1 when they host the Las Vegas
Raiders at FirstEnergy Stadium.
“No. 1, I think it ‘s just completely insensitive to a guy that just tore his ACL,” Mayfield said before practice Oct. 28 on Zoom. “I’m not even going to comment on it. You never want to lose guys, and that’s where I’m going to leave that one.”
Head coach Kevin Stefanski is in lock step with his quarterback.
“I reject that (notion),” Stefanski said emphatically on Zoom about 45 minutes after Mayfield. “Odell is a great, great player. We’re going to miss him. I feel sick, still, without him in the building. But our offense is based on 11 guys and the quarterback going through his reads. It was like that with 13 (Beckham) in there and it will be like that without 13 in there.”
Beckham caught 23 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns over the first six games of 2020. He was placed on injured reserve Oct. 27 and will miss the rest of the season. A date to surgically repair his torn ACL has not been determined. Beckham was injured trying to tackle Bengals cornerback Darius Phillips after Phillips intercepted a pass from Mayfield on the Browns’ second offensive play.
Mayfield threw 27 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions in 14 games in 2018. The 27 TD passes set an NFL record for rookie quarterbacks.
Former Browns general manager John Dorsey traded a 2019 first-round pick, a 2019 third-round pick and safety Jabrill Peppers to the Giants for Beckham in March of 2019 to give Mayfield another dynamic wide receiver to go pair with Jarvis Landry after the Browns finished 7-8-1 in 2018.
The grand plan quickly crashed and burned. Beckham played 16 games with a lower abdominal injury, the Browns regressed to 6-10, Freddie Kitchens was fired after one year as head coach and Mayfield’s numbers slumped to 22 touchdown passes and 21 interceptions. His completion percentage slipped from 63.8 as a rookie to 59.4 a year ago.
Beckham was targeted 133 times i n 2019. He caught 74 passes for 1,035 yards and scored four touchdowns. Landry was targeted 138 times, caught 83 passes for 1,174 yards and scored six touchdowns.
The 2020 Browns at 5-2 have their best record after seven games since they were 6-1 in 1994. Yet even with Stefanski, Mayfield and Beckham in sync, Beckham was on target for the fewest receptions (62) over 16 games of his seven-year career.
Mayfield set a Browns’ franchise record in Cincinnati by completing 21 straight passes after Beckham departed. He also threw a career-high five touchdown passes in the same game.
“I’m not smart enough to make an argument for that (data),” Stefanski said. “I’ll just tell you I’d much rather have 13 on the field and available to us. He’s not. So we’ll make sure we have a plan to make sure we move the ball.
“I trust the guys we have. We’ll have multiple roles for some people because you’re not going to just plug and and play one person for Odell. I don’t think that’s realistic. This is a team effort, and we’re going to need a team effort to beat a good Raiders team on Sunday.”
Wide receiver Khadarel Hodge (hamstring) was activated from injured reserve Oct. 28 to fill Beckham’s roster spot. Hodge, Rashard Higgins and Donovan Peoples-Jones along with Landry will try to fill the void created by the Beckham injury.
Mayfield doesn’t know how the Raiders and other teams will defend the Browns now that they don’t have to contend with Beckham.
“We believe in the guys we have,” Mayfield said. “That’s why they’re here. We’re going to expect them to step up and do what they are capable of, nothing more, nothing less. Just to go out there and do their job.
“We just have to be able to adjust and adapt. Just like a game plan, you might have something planned and then they come out and show a different look. You have to be able to adjust on the fly. We will see what happens, but until then, I can’t predict it.”
Landry has 29 catches for 367 yards. He has no touchdowns. Higgins has 11 catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns, PeoplesJones three catches for 56 yards and one touchdown and Hodge three catches for 51 yards.
Injury report Center JC Tretter (knee), tight end Austin Hooper (recovering from appendectomy), defensive end Myles Garrett (ankle), linebacker Jacob Phillips (knee) and guard Wyatt Teller (calf) did not practice with the Browns on Oct. 28.