5 NFL players who will benefit greatly from their new head coach
By John Buhler
player. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. Cleveland Browns. Baker Mayfield. 1. QB. 53
2020 is the biggest year of Baker Mayfield‘s professional life. While he was incredible for the Cleveland Browns as a rookie in ’18, the 2017 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback out of Oklahoma succumbed to the all-too-popular sophomore slump. The Browns massively underachieved. While they had a gym teacher for a head coach, Mayfield too was at fault.
Enter Kevin Stefanski as Cleveland’s new head coach and you have to be excited about what the Browns are becoming. Along with new general manager Andrew Berry, the Browns have the feel of the next up-and-coming team in the AFC. They have one of the better rosters in football and should make the playoffs this season if everything lives up to reasonable expectations.
By drafting Jedrick Wills Jr. out of Alabama and signing Jack Conklin away from the Tennessee Titans in free agency, Mayfield will no longer be scrambling for his life behind a perpetually collapsing pocket. Not only does he have Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt to hand the ball off to, but he gained a Pro Bowl tight end in Austin Hooper to his already bountiful receiving corps.
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In short, Mayfield cannot be the reason the Browns don’t make the playoffs this year. He has all the weapons he could ever want and then some. The offensive line may not be as good as we think it can be, but with an adult in the room in Stefanski, Mayfield has his best opportunity of living up to being the No. 1 overall pick taken two springs ago by Cleveland.