Browns trying to bridge disconnect between Mayfield, Beckham
BEREA — Team drills ended and a special teams period began, so Odell Beckham Jr. drifted to an adjoining field to talk with passing game coordinator/ receivers coach Chad O’shea.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield joined not long after, and soon the fourth-year signal-caller and three-time Pro Bowl receiver were engaged in serious discussion over a route.
Mayfield walked toward Beckham as they talked. Mayfield pointed and gestured, moving Beckham around.
O’shea and receiver Jarvis Landry, Beckham’s close friend, chatted nearby, and eventually offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt arrived. Mayfield left briefly to say something to receiver Rashard Higgins, then returned to Beckham.
The Mayfield-beckham interaction lasted perhaps five minutes. But it illustrated how the Browns are attempting to bridge the disconnect between the two, magnified by Mayfield’s improved performance after Beckham was lost for the season to a torn ACL on Oct. 25.
Finding chemistry between Mayfield and the gifted Beckham is a top priority if the Browns are to live up to their billing as a Super Bowl contender.
But in the wake of Beckham’s Nov. 10 left knee surgery, the Browns are
attempting to get the two offensive lynchpins on the same page in a somewhat unconventional manner. They are stressing personal communication over team drills.
Teammates, members of the organization, and observers have been awed by Beckham’s comeback, with seemingly no dropoff in his skills. But what ails the Mayfield and Beckham connection can’t be fixed through practice snaps and muscle memory alone.
That’s why the two have spent part of training camp “working on the side,” as the Browns put it, in an effort to become a dynamic duo. Beckham also worked out with teammates in June in Mayfield’s hometown of Austin, Texas.
“We get routes on air,” Mayfield said. “During the special teams breaks, we are getting reps pretty much every day. We are trying to save his legs for the real thing, but we are getting plenty of reps right now.”
Van Pelt sees value in the approach they’ve taken. “I go back to the body language, the technique of the route-running, the depth, just being in the right place at the right time and having the timing with the quarterback’s feet, that you can get on air,” Van Pelt said. “Obviously, it ramps up when you’re in a team setting, but you’ve put all those reps in, at practice that muscle memory takes over and hopefully you come out on the same page.” Had the Browns waited until Beckham was full-go, “the same page” may have been several more weeks away.
In the first seven games last season, Mayfield was pressing to get the ball to Beckham and threw 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions. After Beckham was injured, Mayfield was intercepted only once the rest of the regular season.
ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, who played quarterback for 12 years in NFL, puts the onus on Mayfield, saying, “It’s not an Odell thing, it’s a Baker thing.” Orlovsky said when Beckham was in the game, Mayfield altered his thought process at the line of scrimmage, getting the play call and immediately checking to see where Beckham was.
“The key is listening,” Orlovsky said. “The quarterback, don’t talk, you’ve got to listen. He’s the guy out there running routes, fighting contact, and trying to snap his head and catch the ball, so you’ve got to listen to that guy and try to understand what he’s experiencing to get him to play as good as he can.”
That there was not an immediate connection in the pairing of two alpha players should not be surprising. Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma and was the No. 1 overall pick in 2018. Beckham was the king of New York for five seasons.
Since the 2019 trade with the Giants that brought Beckham to Cleveland, he’s pulled in seven touchdown passes from Mayfield in 23 games over two seasons. Two of those came Oct. 4 at Dallas, when Beckham also ran for a 50-yard touchdown.
Beckham has not been the game-breaking receiver the Browns thought they traded for. Beckham virtually won the game by himself against the Cowboys. Against the New York Jets in 2019, his first home game with the Browns, Beckham totaled six catches for 161 yards and an 89-yard score.
The Browns want Beckham on the field for the season-opening rematch Sept. 12 in Arrowhead Stadium, even if he sometimes serves as a decoy. A decoy with the talents of Beckham will open up things for everyone else. Better communication between Beckham and Mayfield — even if as one-sided as Thursday’s exchange — could be even more productive.