Berea, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – There’s a lot that goes into being the face of an NFL franchise, including choice of facial hair.
Most recently Baker Mayfield has gone with the mustache, prompting prying questions following Wednesday’s practice about the new look.
“Maybe you’ll find out, maybe you won’t,” Mayfield quipped. “That’s the elegance of having a mustache, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
That’s Mayfield in a nutshell.
You don’t know what’s going to happen.
One minute he’s dropping a dime into the arms of Rashard Higgins and seconds later he’s barking at the receiver for being unaware he wasn’t touched down by rookie Greedy Williams and giving up on the play instead of streaking to the end zone.
“They know I’m going to push them; they know I’m going to push myself,” Mayfield said. “So it’s nothing personal when it comes to getting after somebody, and I expect them to hold me accountable as well and that’s the beauty of having guys that really want to win.”
It wasn’t the first time Mayfield voiced his displeasure during this camp.
Saturday morning Mayfield let his receivers have it following a scramble play that saw them give up on it when Mayfield escaped to his right.
“Those guys know that that’s a big part of our offense,” Mayfield said. “And they know that, it’s just the fact that if we get lazy and we let things slide, we need to be overcommunicating right now, that’s what the good teams do. Like I said, we’ve got to be on the same page.”
It's a stark contrast to last year when Mayfield was relegated to backup reps and had to respect his place on the depth chart.
“Yeah, it would be kind of hard for the backup QB in training camp to be very vocal last year,” Mayfield said. “So this year is definitely a lot different.”
After throwing for a franchise rookie record 3,725 yards and an NFL rookie record 27 touchdowns in 2018, expectations are running high for Mayfield and the Browns for 2019.
Mayfield is trying to make the most of his time in camp to get his teammates on the same page, but it hasn’t been easy.
“Chemistry’s definitely the issue now,” Mayfield said. “We’re getting on the same page, being able to communicate was what we stressed on very early in the process, and now it’s being able to execute.
“Chemistry is a big part of it, but being able to talk through things and get as game-like in situations as possible to where we can realize how I need to throw the ball, where it needs to be thrown… That’s what we’re stressing.”
That’s exactly what training camp is for.
Mayfield understands perfection isn’t going to be achieved. After all, the defense has plenty of talent too, and players that are also trying to make the team.
But what Mayfield wants is to come away each day a bit better than when they started it.
“We've got to get better each day,” Mayfield said.
Wednesday’s practice focused on situations and clock management. It did not go well.
One series tested the offense trailing by two with 50 seconds on the clock and one timeout. Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t get the field goal unit on the field because time expired.
While a few fans in the stands groaned, Mayfield chalks it up to a learning experience.
“We need to stress [situational football],” Mayfield said. “We need to be a smart football team and be a step ahead of the game 'cause you won't win if you play dumb. There's little things we get better at each day, but there's also things we need to work on. That's why it's training camp. We're not at the end of the year. We're not in the playoffs. We're working on getting better each day and that's the beauty about training camp.
“It's not going to be perfect. You always need to have something to work on.”
If there’s anything Mayfield takes away form the first six practices, it’s that they have plenty to work on.
And that’s okay.
