CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has never been shy about letting his opinions be known, even if it meant snubbing a former coach or planting the University of Oklahoma flag at the 50-yard line of Ohio Stadium and upsetting more than 100,000 Ohio State Buckeyes fans in the process.
And the second-year signal-caller is not afraid to call on the carpet a wide receiver who did not run the correct route in a drill during training camp, which happened throughout the practices, both in Berea and Indianapolis in joint sessions against the Colts at Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana.
“I don’t know if they responded to him or not, but yeah, I expect my quarterback to get everybody on the same page,” Browns coach Freddie Kitchens said during training camp. “That is what I want.”
Running back Nick Chubb added, “It gets us going. Somebody calls someone out, no matter if it was our right tackle, he says the same thing, we’re gonna respond. We’re all for each other, and if he wants something changed like that, we’re gonna fix it. We’re gonna get it right for him. It wasn’t like he was out of place. He said exactly what needed to be done. We’re the ones running with him. We needed that.”
After taking over the first-team offense in the second quarter of a Week 3 win over the New York Jets, Mayfield completed 310 of his 486 attempts (63.8 percent) for 3,725 yards and 27 touchdowns against 14 interceptions.
Under the direction of new Browns coach Freddie Kitchens, the interim offensive coordinator for the second half of the 2018 season, Mayfield completed 180 of his 263 attempts (68.4 percent) for 2,254 yards and 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions.
Although Mayfield does not get official credit for the victory over the Jets because he came on in relief of an injured Tyrod Taylor, the first-year quarterback guided the Browns to seven wins and the greatest single-year turnaround in franchise history.
“I want him to be himself,” Kitchens said of Mayfield. “If he wanted to say something, he said something. It does not matter to me. It is just whatever he wants to do. I know they need to be on the same page. I don’t care how it gets done. They need to be on the same page. That is their job. I am going to do my job, and everybody needs to do their job. Just do their job, and we will be successful.
“Some people did and some people did not, so whenever somebody does not, somebody needs to correct it. Whether it is a coach or another player, I do not care how it is done. I just want it corrected. I am about the result, not the want to or the should have.”
Whatever talk Mayfield had with the wide receivers worked, at least early in training camp.
On one of the first padded practices of the camp, Kitchens put 85 seconds on the clock and had the offense start with a first-and-10 from their own 40-yard line. It took just three passes from quarterback Baker Mayfield, one to Odell Beckham Jr. and two to Jarvis Landry, who caught a 23-yard touchdown to cap the drill.
“It’s great,” Chubb said. “When you’re able to go out in a two-minute drill and score that easily, that’s good for the whole team. That’s good for morale. Trusting those guys in a critical time like two minutes to win the ballgame, to be able to go down there and score, I’m happy to be a part of it and I’m looking forward to it.”