Tag: alex van pelt

Why Baker Mayfield and the Browns’ passing game are circling the drain

The Browns’ passing game has imploded in the second half of the season, and Baker Mayfield with it. Is there enough time to turn things around?

Whatever his inconsistencies throughout his NFL career, Baker Mayfield has usually been pretty careful with the football. Before the Browns’ 24-22 loss to the Packers on Christmas Day, Mayfield had never thrown more than three interceptions in a game, he’d only done that five times in his NFL tenure, and never in either 2020 or 2021.

Then, Mayfield threw four interceptions against the Packers, and that disaster marked  the nadir of a disconcerting trend. Since Week 10 of the 2021 season, Mayfield has completed 56.1% of his passes (87 of 155) for 908 yards (5.9 yards per attempt), seven touchdowns, eight interceptions, and a passer rating of 66.8 — the worst in the NFL among starting quarterbacks over that time.

From Weeks 1-9, Mayfield completed 66.7% of his passes (150 of 225) for 1,917 yards (8.5 yards per attempt), eight touchdowns, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 99.4, 10th-best in the league.

Things started to get really weird in Week 11, when the Browns beat the Tim Boyle-led Lions, 13-10, but Mayfield completed just 15 of 29 passes for 176 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. Mayfield, who had been struggling with injuries all season, was clearly limping in the second half, but head coach Kevin Stefanski kept him in the game. Mayfield did not speak to the media after the game, but got back to the podium the next day.

“It is about putting it all together,” he said. “When we do our job and we do it well, we are a really good team. That takes converting on third downs, finishing in the red zone and then not hurting yourselves in the middle of drives to where you have to overcome long-yardage situations. It is being consistent within every single drive and having a singular focus on the task at hand within those drives and knowing that those critical downs we have to convert and we have to do well.”

It hasn’t tracked yet. The Browns have dropped from seventh to 20th in Offensive DVOA since Week 10, and from 11th to 24th in Passing DVOA. They’ve gone from 5-4 to 7-8, they’re currently last in the AFC North, and while that division is wide open for them with upcoming games against the Steelers this Monday night, and against the Bengals on Sunday, January 9. But if this is the passing game the Browns tote into those two games, the playoffs could be nothing but a fever dream.

So… how did things get so bad, and how can they be fixed?

Browns plan to have Mike Priefer fill in for Kevin Stefanski as head coach

The Browns have experience with Priefer filling in for Stefanski in a critical game

The sobering news is that Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has tested positive for COVID-19 and could miss the critical Week 15 home date with the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday. The upshot is that the Browns do have some experience in handling this exact scenario and also have a plan of attack in place.

As was the case when Stefanski missed the playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers last season due to a positive COVID-19 test, Browns special teams coordinator Mike Priefer will handle the head coaching duties. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt will assume all playcalling responsibility during the game.

Stefanski’s chief of staff, Callie Brownson, will have an increased role in coaching on the sidelines on Saturday as well. Running backs coach Ryan Cordell has also tested positive for COVID-19. Brownson has served as an interim position coach before, taking over for TE coach Drew Petzing last season when his wife gave birth. Brownson was the first woman to ever assume coaching duties for an NFL regular-season game. She also replaced WR coach Chad O’Shea for the playoff game against Pittsburgh.

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Kevin Stefanski to remain offensive play caller

After deliberating the decision in 2020, Stefanski quickly decided he will call plays in 2021, once again. Surprising? What could it mean for AVP in the future?

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If it isn’t broke, why fix it?

Last year, despite being a first-time head coach during a global pandemic, Kevin Stefanski called the offensive plays for the Cleveland Browns. The young coach was hired due to his offensive acumen but also for his ability to lead the whole team.

Stefanski hired Alex Van Pelt to be his offensive coordinator without certainty of who would call the plays on game day. With everything up in the air and the two top offensive coaches getting to know each other, it was unsurprising that Stefanski held the reigns of the offense in 2020.

It worked for the Browns especially in the second half of the season. With a year together and a full offseason to plan, it was thought that Van Pelt might take over the play-calling duties in 2021. This would allow Stefanski more time to focus on the whole team’s needs during the game.

Instead, Cleveland’s head coach once again will be calling the plays:

 

With this decision being up in the air in 2020, it is somewhat surprising to see it continue in 2021. It is possible that Stefanski, much like Andy Reid, Sean McVay and others, will call plays the majority of his career if things go well once again in 2021.

For Van Pelt, taking over play-calling, whether with the Browns or elsewhere, will be the next step in his professional career. Will he get the chance in Cleveland?

Browns OC Alex Van Pelt hoping to avoid making Kevin Stefanski yell at his TV

Van Pelt will control the offense vs. Pittsburgh in Stefanski’s absence

Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt is taking over the play-calling duties for Sunday’s wild-card matchup with the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Normally those duties fall upon head coach Kevin Stefanski, but the COVID-19 outbreak around Cleveland has forced the head man to miss the game.

Van Pelt feels like he’s ready to handle the job. He’s done it before, albeit not in Cleveland.

“Just try to do it as well as I can,” Van Pelt said in his Zoom session with the media this week. “I really don’t have an approach. Obviously, I have a good feel for Kevin and how he’s called it throughout the course of the season. I want to stay true to his beliefs in offense and I feel the same way. So obviously it’ll be a little bit different just because of the nature. Nobody calls it the same. But hopefully it’ll be very similar.”

Van Pelt then offered a lighter assessment of his goal for Sunday night,

“We’ve had a lot of success offensively, and my hope is at the end of the game there’s not too many times where he’s yelling at his TV going, ‘What the heck are you doing?’”

Van Pelt’s offense will be without Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio and passing targets, TE Hunter Bryant and WR KhaDarel Hodge. It won’t be easy but the Browns still have some weapons at Van Pelt’s disposal in Nick Chubb, Jarvis Landry, Kareem Hunt and David Njoku.

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Kevin Stefanski announces he will call the offensive plays for the Browns

Stefanski had resisted revealing if he or OC Alex Van Pelt would call the plays

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski ended weeks of questions and speculation on Friday when he finally revealed who will call the offensive plays for the team in 2020.

Stefanski will call his own plays.

It’s a question that has hung over Stefanski since at least the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, where he faced a question about his desire to call plays in Cleveland. Stefanski was the chief play-caller for the Minnesota Vikings as their offensive coordinator in 2019, though Minnesota’s head coach, Mike Zimmer, comes from a defensive background.

Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt also has play-calling experience in his background. Stefanski and the Browns have dodged answering the questions about the responsibility for weeks.

The play-calling duties have taken on increased significance in Cleveland in recent seasons. Predecessors Freddie Kitchens and Hue Jackson both fumbled the responsibility, at times calling their own while handing it off to others at times, too.

Kevin Stefanski still won’t reveal who will call the Browns offensive plays

Will it be Kevin Stefanski or Alex Van Pelt? Coach Stefanski will not reveal.

Give Kevin Stefanski credit for being able to keep a secret. The Browns rookie head coach still will not reveal who will be calling the offensive plays when Cleveland visits Baltimore to face the Ravens in Week 1 in just four days.

Stefanski has steadfastly refused to divulge if he or offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt will handle the in-game playcalling duties. The topic has come up in several press conferences, but Stefanski has never even tipped his hand one way or the other.

He did that once again in Wednesday’s Zoom session with reporters, a press conference that featured a more national presence than normal. The question came up right away.

Who will call the plays, Stefanski or Van Pelt?

With a wry smile, Stefanski dodged the bullet.

“No, I will get to that, though. I promise.”

When asked later in the press conference if he and Van Pelt would call plays differently, once again Stefanski refused to bite.

“I will not speculate.”

Because Stefanski won’t, it will lead to many doing the speculating for him. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in Cleveland, where who is calling the plays takes on unusual importance after some recent coaching nightmares on that front.

Baker Mayfield shows off his new shotgun snap footwork

Mayfield is switching his feet around when he takes the shotgun snap

One of the most tangible bits of coaching impact to watch with the Cleveland Browns this year will be with Baker Mayfield’s feet. The new coaching staff of head man Kevin Stefanski and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt is overhauling Mayfield’s footwork in the pocket.

Van Pelt is a big believer in having the left foot forward at the time of the QB taking the shotgun snap. Mayfield has been a right-foot forward guy his entire career going back to Oklahoma.

It’s a transformation project Van Pelt has taken on with the young Browns QB. Despite working remotely during the pandemic, Mayfield appears to be buying in.

The Browns showed off the fruits of his labor in a video clip from Friday’s training camp session. Watch the feet:

It’s a work in progress but there is definite progress to what Van Pelt and Mayfield are working on.

Kevin Stefanski needs to quickly decide who is calling the Browns offense

Head coach Kevin Stefanski needs to quickly decide who is calling the plays in the Browns offense

In 2018, rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield had three different play-callers in the Browns offense. The battle between head coach Hue Jackson, offensive coordinator Todd Haley and interim OC Freddie Kitchens was a confusing maelstrom of divergent voices in young Mayfield’s ear.

Flash forward to 2019 and once again the play-calling shifted on Mayfield. Kitchens as the head coach and offensive coordinator Todd Monken struggled to find the right balance of power, and it cost the Browns in the win column and stunted Mayfield’s development.

Now it’s 2020 and the Browns have another new head coach in Kevin Stefanski. The offensive-minded head man is installing his version of the base offense he ran in Minnesota and others in the Gary Kubiak/Mike Shanahan offensive scheme tree have implemented. But there is also a new coordinator in Alex Van Pelt, who comes from a different coaching tree.

So it’s troubling when Stefanski said in his last Zoom session with the media that he wasn’t really sure who was going to call the plays.

“That really remains to be seen,” Stefanski said when asked point-blank who would be the authority. “I’d like to get everybody back in the building, get out there practicing and get together before we make that decision. That decision will be made before September 13, I promise you that.”

One of the ways in which rookie head coaches often struggle is in finding the balance between running the entire team and being devoted to just one side of the ball. Many successful coaches do call their own offensive plays, including both headmen in last season’s Super Bowl, Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan. It can take time for a greenhorn like Stefanski to find that balance, however.

It’s easy to appreciate that Stefanski wants to get all his offensive coaches together in person before deciding, but it’s a critical decision that needs to be made quickly.

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Browns OC Alex Van Pelt likes the detail of teaching by video

Browns OC Alex Van Pelt likes the detail of teaching by video

Alex Van Pelt is making it work. Learning how to coach over video exchanges and conference calls during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a novel concept for Cleveland’s offensive coordinator.

Teaching via video instead of working hands-on with the players is a different kind of challenge. Van Pelt has found he likes certain aspects of learning a new way to coach. The new OC talked about one of the unexpected benefits in an interview with Cleveland Browns Daily this week.

“It’s a hell of a deal,” Van Pelt told host Nathan Zegura. “You get to actually slo-mo down and really zoom in and highlight just the quarterback’s feet and be able to show him what you’re looking for.”

Overhauling Baker Mayfield’s footwork on his dropbacks is one of Van Pelt’s primary offseason projects. They are trying to change the positioning and sequencing for Mayfield’s feet on his drops.

Browns OC Alex Van Pelt sees ‘the sky’s the limit’ for Jedrick Wills at left tackle

Browns OC Alex Van Pelt sees ‘the sky’s the limit’ for Jedrick Wills at left tackle

Jedrick Wills is moving from right tackle for the Alabama Crimson Tide to left tackle for the Cleveland Browns. Wills is making the transition in one offseason, and it’s an unconventional offseason at that thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine restrictions.

New Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt is the latest member of the team’s staff to talk up Wills and his potential to make an immediate positive impact on Cleveland’s rebuilt offensive line. Van Pelt gushed about the team’s first-round pick during the coach’s Zoom session with the media.

“Jed going over to the left side, I think the sky’s the limit for him,” Van Pelt told reporters. “Expect him to be a left tackle for a long time in this league for the Browns. We’re excited to have him.”

Wills has been “dialed in” during their remote meetings and training sessions, according to Van Pelt. Coach Van Pelt also noted the experienced coaching staff is a big asset in helping Wills transition from right to left and from the SEC to the NFL. OL coach Bill Callahan and assistant OL coach Scott Peters have already been working closely with Wills and have ample experience developing young talents.

“Having coach Callahan and coach Peters on board, that will only accelerate his growth and expect him to be a left tackle for a long time in this league for the Browns.”