It's time to turn the page and begin the hunt for a new QB. #Browns | Page 19 | Barking Hard

It's time to turn the page and begin the hunt for a new QB. #Browns

Sorry player fans. It's time. Baker Mayfield is an average NFL QB, a future journeyman ...and it's time to look at our options. There are only two QBs in the NFL worse than Baker Mayfield in the 4th quarter. We routinely finish in the bottom half in almost every meaningful passing category. There is nothing at all special about him. I used to think he had an elite arm, but a lot of QBs can throw the ball hard. He can certainly throw it, but how well does he pass it really? High, hard, and behind. Rinse and repeat. A large percentage of his completions go that route as well. He has every single weakness he had coming out of college. Nothing at all has improved. In the NFL he isn't chucking up prayers to NFL caliber WRs being covered by guys who are now checking out your groceries. Baker Mayfield is the 4th best QB in the AFC North. Out of 4 teams.



Last place in the division. Most in here predicted outlandish success this season. 12 wins? 14? Maybe more. This blow-hard thought we would likely have less wins than last season, simply due to a historically easy schedule in 2020. The Browns just lost to a team with no kicker, and a fat QB who likely has lower back problems, and runs about as fast as an arthritic sloth. People are now starting to look for new excuses. The new coach is holding the team back. The WRs drop the ball too much. Mean fans are hurting Emily Mayfield's feelings and it's having an effect on Baker's play. The truth is, there's a bottleneck at the QB position. We have a Superbowl caliber roster, and a QB that is limiting what we can do with it. Baker Mayfield is the best QB we have had in twenty years ....and people are desperate to defend him. I get it.



Against the Steelers on Sunday we witnessed something we try really hard to ignore. Baker throwing high and hard the majority of the game. While throwing from the pocket, Baker not only can't see most of the field, but he throws his trademark bullets high enough to get over the defenders standing between he and his receiver. This just doesn't work, as the trajectory of these bullets leave them high and often behind his mark. A difficult ask of WRs, TEs, and RBs. You'll have player fans on twitter showing slow motion replays of a ball going through Hooper's hand, and calling anyone who dares criticize Baker a "mouth breather", but in reality Hooper was at the top of his jump, arms outstretched to the max, trying to reel in a high, hard, and behind football. Could have easily been a walk in touchdown instead... a bad pass. A QB could normally avoid this by putting some touch on the ball, a little arc, or air under it ....but Baker doesn't seem to have that gear.

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Mayfield throughout his entire career has made a cottage industry of rolling to his right. It seems to be the one thing he is great at. The problem is, when you are a one-trick pony, other teams game-plan to take that trick away from you. Baker has rolled right and attempted to pass a total of 6 times this year. Think about that in relation to each year prior. Teams have forced Baker into the pocket, the Steelers literally dared the Browns to pass practically the entire game. How is it working out?

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Fourth quarter, and another chance to win a game. Most of us knew what was going to happen didn't we? We have held onto hope, praying that the light would go on, that Baker would make wholesale changes, and he would become the Browns franchise QB ...someone we could count on to put the team on his back and lead us to victory with the game on the line. What we have got in reality is a QB that is 33 of 62, with 4 TDs and 5 INTS. Sam Darnold is the only QB as bad as Mayfield with the game on the line since 2018. Mayfield's passing rating with the game on the line is 61.3 and the Browns are 3-11 in these scenarios.

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Kevin Stefanski was hired to reign in Mayfield's erratic tendencies. Stefanski's offense tends to turn average QBs into statistical wonders, (Case Keenum) and perhaps limit some players at certain positions, like a downfield QB and burner WR for example. Some argue that Stefanski has taken Mayfield's gunslinger aura away from him, which while true is also the reason why Baker has become far less prone to interceptions. The dink and dunk offense with numerous screens and TE heavy route trees certainly makes a QB look good on paper at times ...but who is Baker Mayfield without the ability to roll out on play action and plant bombs down the field? Certainly these are often 50/50 bombs, but they do add to what an opposing defense has to worry about. Mayfield has 10 completions of 20 or more yards this season ...20th in the league. Recall Stefon Diggs having the same issue that OBJ is currently having in the Stefanski offense. He moved on to the Bills and is back to all-pro form. I suspect OBJ will do the same for some other team.

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In short, we have no vertical passing attack, while employing one of the very best WR tandems in the game, and one of the fastest WRs in the league in Schwartz. Did the Browns hire the right coach? If you believe analytics and going by the book is usually right, then yes. If you believe in coaches who base decisions on the ebb and flow of the game, their "gut" as it were, then no. We are the worst team in the league at going for it on 4th down. Analytics got us there.

We could have had Canton native and lifelong Browns fan Josh McDaniels.

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So where are we now? A Superbowl caliber roster, with an extremely limited QB, and a coach who can only go by the book, apparently not capable of harnessing whatever "elite" trait Mayfield may have, if he has one at all. Playoffs this season ...not likely. Our Superbowl window is open for only a short while ...without the Browns front office doing something extremely out of character (see, ballsy) like going after a Watson, Wilson, or Rogers ...I don't see us going anywhere.

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(yes another QB thread)
 
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And many more with a Google search. No Google search results in any article on any site (pay or not pay) about haslem forcing the Baker pick. All articles talk about how it was all Dorsey for that pick, and only he knew who the pick would be.

Hindsight is always 20/20. While certainly very few then or now saw Baker as #1 overall material, not many saw Allen and Lamar looking like the best 2 QBs out of that draft
 
i mean josh allen has 8TDS and 7int his last 5 games and lamar has 8tds and 10 int his last 6 games. .... baker isnt the only one struggling from his class.

as chris simms said Stefanski's drop back passing game is John Gruden's week one install in training camp. they are going to have to fix the passing game when they cant run the ball. the play action game is fine/good, but the straight drop back game needs some updating.
 
i mean josh allen has 8TDS and 7int his last 5 games and lamar has 8tds and 10 int his last 6 games. .... baker isnt the only one struggling from his class.

as chris simms said Stefanski's drop back passing game is John Gruden's week one install in training camp. they are going to have to fix the passing game when they cant run the ball. the play action game is fine/good, but the straight drop back game needs some updating.


Yes if anyone's been watching... Lamar Jackson has been lackluster.. He is a one dimensional athlete... Without that quick juke move he has.. He has basically nothing... once that ability to Juke move decays.. he's basically neutered and will be forced to win from the pocket.. His passing mechanics are pure shit! But somehow.. He's managed to get away with it at this point...
 
Still no link which means you're talking out of your ass.

You must be a Democrat.
You're the one talking out of his ass in your pathetic attempts to suck off Andrew Berry at every turn. I gave you the website address, yet here you are trying to spin it over and over and over. Dorsey loved Allen. The scouts loved Allen. Barry McBride and Co have post after post about insiders in Berea being head over heels for Allen.
 

And many more with a Google search. No Google search results in any article on any site (pay or not pay) about haslem forcing the Baker pick. All articles talk about how it was all Dorsey for that pick, and only he knew who the pick would be.

Hindsight is always 20/20. While certainly very few then or now saw Baker as #1 overall material, not many saw Allen and Lamar looking like the best 2 QBs out of that draft
Nice spin. Nowhere did I say there were articles stating Haslam forced the pick. Reading comprehension is an amazing thing. There is however article after article about Dorsey AND the scouts being in love with Josh Allen. Insider report after report after report that they were zoned in on Allen above anyone else. That is a fact. Something changed it at the last minute to the flashy kid with red flags from a Southern College who was being called Johnny Football 2.0 before the draft.

Going off of track record? 99.999% chance Haslam pulled rank in that draft as well and took the sizzle over substance. Or we can believe the AB dickriders that the guy who made moves for Mahommes is suddenly a drooling buffoon to fit their narrative.
 
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