What You Need To Know:

• Mayfield took a step back across the board in his 2nd NFL season.
• He’ll be playing under a new coaching staff in 2020.
• Mayfield’s supporting cast was upgraded this offseason, with TE Austin Hooper and OTs Jack Conklin and Jedrick Wills arriving.

Nightmare 2019

After showing promise as a rookie, Mayfield face planted last fall.

Starting all 16 games, he registered per game averages of just 239 yards, 1.37 TDs and 1.31 INTs. His completion rate dropped 4.4 percentage points from 2018. And playing behind a leaky O-line, his sack rate grew from 4.9% to 7.0%.

It’s also important to recognize that this unit trotted out a less-than 100% Odell Beckham. He underwent surgery for a sports hernia in January but is back to 100%. Promising TE David Njoku lasted just 4 games, largely due to a Week 2 wrist injury.

Mayfield, independently, remained disappointing. Per Pro Football Reference, only 70.6% of his passes were charted as “on target.” That ranked 2nd worst among 32 qualifiers in front of — you guessed it — Jameis Winston.

Now, 3 rushing TDs helped Mayfield finish as the season-long QB16. But in reality, he was an unreliable week-to-week option who hurt you more weeks than he helped. Mayfield’s only 3-TD outings came against poor defenses: Miami in Week 12 (327-3-1) and Cincinnati in Week 17 (279-3-3).

Fresh start

With the offense regressing under HC Freddie Kitchens, the team went a different route by hiring former Vikings OC Kevin Stefanski and long-time QB coach Alex Van Pelt from Cincinnati.

2019 was Stefanski’s only year as an OC, but the results speak for themselves. Minnesota ranked 16th in yards but 8th in points, 4th in rush attempts and 6th in rushing yards. He heavily utilized 2-TE sets for a heavy outside zone rushing attack, off which the Vikings often executed play-action. Pro Football Focus charted play-action passes on 31% of Kirk Cousins’ drop backs.

Mayfield has the athleticism to get on the move, buy time and deliver the ball. He ranked 2nd —behind Cousins — in PFF grade on designed rollouts.

But how pass heavy will this offense be? After all, the Vikings ranked 26th in total plays last year; 30th in pass rate.

"It all starts with the run game and the play-action off it and the keepers that come off from the action," Van Pelt said via Browns.com. "Obviously having Nick is huge and Kareem (Hunt), those two are two of the best in the league. The outside receivers are tremendous players. To be able to come in and put an offense together with two 1,000 yard receivers and a 1,400 yard rusher is pretty exciting as a coach.”

Weapons

With Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt in the backfield, the Browns are set up to run.

Consider that Beckham — while healthy — is still a bit of a wild card coming off a down season. Jarvis Landry underwent February hip surgery and isn’t quite a Week 1 lock. And Njoku struggled to see the field, even after returning from injury.

Mayfield, though, should be much more efficient as he enters his 3rd season. The Browns added a dependable TE in former Falcon Austin Hooper. Critically, they address the issue at OT by drafting Jedrick Wills in Round 1 and signing former Titan Jack Conklin in free agency.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Mayfield took a massive step back in year 2. His numbers regressed across the board in his first full season under HC Freddie Kitchens.

With Kitchens out — and Kevin Stefanski in — this unit projects as one of the run heaviest league-wide. Mayfield remains a potential QB1 because of the weapons around him — and a potentially huge boost in efficiency. But we prefer to draft him as part of a 2-man QB committee.