CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Last week Baker Mayfield spoke about leading by example.
Wednesday, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt praised Mayfield’s leadership while everyone navigates a challenging offseason that has been limited to video conference calls, film study and individual workouts while trying to implement a new offense.
“He has done everything I would expect for him as a starting quarterback,” Van Pelt said. “His work ethic is great. He jumps in other meetings that aren’t required. He’ll sit in [on] the receiver meetings, when they have them, he’ll sit in [on] the running back meetings from time to time as well. So, he’s all in and doing it exactly how we expect him to do it.”
Installing the offense remotely went smoothly according to Van Pelt.
“Baker has been asking every right question that we have,” Van Pelt said. “At the end of the day, we get together for live meetings. There are some recorded portions of the installation that go out, and you always get feedback from Baker, from Case [Keenum] and the quarterbacks.”
Van Pelt has been working remotely with Mayfield to adjust his footwork from the shotgun as well as from under center these past few weeks.
“Baker’s footwork from the gun will change. We talked bout left foot forward, but from under center I’d like to try and take some of that giant stagger step that he has out,” Van Pelt said. “I think it will ultimately add to the timing of the pass game.”
As for coaching the adjustments, technology has been Van Pelt’s best friend.
“That is the part that you can actually coach over the internet, which is cool,” Van Pelt said. “The quarterbacks sending the videos of their footwork to me, I can now go back, break it down and get on a one-on-one Zoom meeting with them and kind of coach them through the correction process of all the footwork we are going to use.”
Mayfield organized workouts in Austin, Texas with eight teammates but because the workouts were not organized by the team – and the were not allowed to be – Van Pelt has no video of the work. Regardless, he’s confident the work was productive.
“I would expect any professional quarterback and group of receivers to be able to go out and put themselves through a great workout on air,” Van Pelt said. “You’re picking from a list of routes.
“Those guys can get themselves lined up and run those routes. They know the routes that we have in the system just through the installations.”
Last year Odell Beckham Jr. made two appearances outside of the mandatory minicamp – the first day of the offseason program for his introductory presser and the first OTA. This year, with no on field work to be done, Beckham has been a regular attendee of the virtual program.
“He’s all in,” Van Pelt said. “He’s bought in. He’s been there and it’s awesome. It’s good to have him there. It’s good for him because obviously he needs to learn this system but to have him involved and everybody involved – everybody’s attendance has been outstanding – and that’s a tribute to Kevin [Stefanski] and the guys that are buying into the program.”
As for who will call plays this fall, that has yet to be determined.
“That’s not actually something that we’ve even discussed to be honest with you,” Van Pelt said. “I think it’s still a fluid situation. Until we get together and feel more comfortable with each other – him with me more so – on the field, in live action, there’s no script, just calling offense vs. defense. Ultimately until he feels comfortable with that, I think we’re in the same spot as we had been.”
