Baker Mayfield looked like a much different quarterback in Cleveland’s Week 2 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. After a troubling Week 1, Mayfield was mostly brilliant last Thursday.
What changed for Mayfield? Playing Cincinnati instead of Baltimore helped, but the offensive game plan tailored to help Mayfield get comfortable and find his myriad weapons in winning situations was even more important.
Mayfield was asked if it was hard for him to stick to the gameplan instead of trying to feed the large contingency of weapons at his disposal.
“No. I would say yes but that is something in the offseason just knowing to trust the system, go through my reads, not try and force the ball, get it in those guys’ hands and trust that we have everybody around the field that I can trust to do that,” Mayfield responded. “They can go out there and make plays.”
Mayfield continued,
“That is why they are all here so I have to trust that, go through my reads and put that on the coaches. (Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt) and (Head Coach Kevin) Stefanski have said many times to trust that their play calling will get the ball in guys’ hands to get them going, and I just do my job.”
It’s an interesting angle for Mayfield to acknowledge his trust in the coaches and their recirpocal trust in him. That was not something that happened for Mayfield in the underwhelming 2019 campaign with coach Freddie Kitchens.