Cleveland Browns: Freddie Kitchens, Baker Mayfield both to blame

Freddie Kitchens deserves to be right there under the bus with Baker Mayfield as the Cleveland Browns’ offense struggles to get going in 2019.

Do you think the Cleveland Browns regret the spotlight they put on themselves in the 2019 offseason?

Probably not yet, but things are heating up in Cleveland and not in a good way.

The Browns spent essentially the entire offseason winning. They were coming off a strong finish to the 2018 season, Baker Mayfield’s rookie season in which he looked like one of the budding stars at the quarterback position in the NFL.

They traded for Odell Beckham Jr., adding him to an already impressive arsenal of offensive talent featuring Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb, David Njoku, and eventually Kareem Hunt.

The Browns also have strong role players like Antonio Callaway and Demetrius Harris in the passing game.

They looked vastly improved on the defensive side of the ball, surrounding Myles Garrett with plenty of talent (Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson) on the front seven to generate an even better pass rush than they got last season.

But things have not gotten much better than they were last year. In fact, the Browns’ passing game looks awful to start this season, ranking 20th in yards. Mayfield has completed 55.9 percent of his passes with only four touchdowns and eight interceptions.

He’s also taken 16 sacks in five games and the Cleveland offensive line has been absolutely abysmal in pass protection.

As former NFL quarterback JT O’Sullivan outlines in this breakdown of Mayfield’s struggles against the 49ers, the second-year quarterback’s struggles are ample at this point. Although he has to make better throws, he’s not the only one to blame for his regression in 2019.

Against the 49ers specifically, but also on the whole this season, there are a variety of factors contributing to Mayfield’s struggles and the struggles of the Browns’ passing game as an overall unit.

Freddie Kitchens

Although the idea was that the Browns were keeping continuity and hoping they could simply pick up where they left off in 2018, new expectations often come with new struggles and that has proven especially true for Freddie Kitchens.

The Browns obviously have receivers who excel at getting open deeper down the field. They also have one of the most accurate downfield throwers in the game in Baker Mayfield. With that being said, part of the reason Mayfield’s accuracy has been off and he’s thrown twice as many interceptions this year as opposed to last year is the fact that Kitchens is trying to force-feed the downfield passing game.

We saw it over and over again against the 49ers, and it resulted in Nick Bosa waving an invisible flag around in celebration of a dominating first half of football.

Kitchens is not running enough pass plays with simple reads for Mayfield, and he’s doing way too much to try to get things deeper downfield than the offensive line is capable of holding up for.

As a result, the short passing game is non-existent, Mayfield is being limited to essentially one read on every pass play, and Kitchens is hellbent on fitting the square peg in the round hole because of the talent at his disposal.

He’s also doing too much of bunching Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry on the same side of the field.

The play design and concepts by Kitchens are not where they need to be. The Browns’ offense should be flourishing in the short passing game, which could be an extension of their run game if they would let it be, but they’re not doing it and it’s costing the offense tremendously.

Browns receivers

In addition to being asked to run routes way too far downfield, Browns receivers are dropping too many passes at the present moment.

Specifically against the 49ers, Odell Beckham let a pass hit his hands on a deep out against Richard Sherman, Antonio Callaway dropped a touchdown pass that resulted in a tip-drill interception, and Jarvis Landry dropped a pass on an in-route.

Receivers were literally tripping over each other due to routes being too bunched together.

These guys are not helping Baker Mayfield like they are supposed to be at the present moment.

Mayfield could be making better throws, but these guys are not doing enough to help him out by making catches NFL receivers should make. Again, check out the video linked above for some visual evidence of what I’m talking about here.

Offensive line

The Browns’ offensive line has been terrible.

In five games, they’ve allowed 16 sacks on Mayfield and 25 hits in total. He’s being pressured on a far too consistent basis, and part of this comes with the coaching staff trying to force the offensive talent to work despite the offensive line’s ineptitude.

The Browns simply don’t have the personnel on the offensive line to handle edge players like they faced against the 49ers with Nick Bosa and Dee Ford. Those two guys had their way all night, and while the Browns won’t face a front seven as dynamic as San Francisco’s every week, the struggle has been real all season and their coaches have not yet adjusted.

Freddie Kitchens and his staff offensively have to figure out how to make things different. What’s the old saying? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results?

Right now, the Browns are not hurting terribly in the standings. They are 2-3 and in a weak AFC North. But pretty soon, the Ravens are going to start pulling away and if the Browns don’t get things figured out quickly, they’re going to come shockingly short of anyone’s expectations this season, including their own.